Brand New Ending
by Kasumi Karen
Summary: "Have you ever thought a brave, adventurous and independent pirate would give up everything for a family and still be happy? Well, maybe I was wrong"
1. Chapter 1

Hello!  
I really didn´t want to start another story before I complete the ones I´m still writing but this idea is torturing me inside my head. I have to write it down and I have to publish it. I hope you like it.

* * *

**Brand New Ending**

_"Have you ever thought a brave, adventurous and independent pirate could give up everything for a family and still be happy? Well, maybe I was wrong"_

* * *

_Chapter 01_

The sun was high in the sky announcing noon. Classes had been over for a while so quietness took over the place. One teacher remained sweeping the steps at the entrance of the traditional construction and a little girl, of around 5 years old, sat on a bench close to her. She had short green hair that peeked behind a huge book she was writing on, it was almost the same size as her body, her short legs swung up and down the bench.

She seemed to be in deep concentration as the teacher had to call her a couple of times to get her attention.

"Kuina!"The teacher called for a 3rd time. "Your daddy is here"

The tiny girl jumped off her seat closing the book in the split of a second. In front of the teacher was a tall man wearing black boots, pants and green haramaki with a matching color yukata on top of all of it, It was draped over his right shoulder. The part of his torso that was naked reveled he was extremely muscular, as well as, he had a huge scar. It appeared over his left hip and crossed his chest until it hid under the yukata. His face expressed not much emotion, his right eye looked lazily at the little girl and the other, the one that was divided by a scar, was closed. He had short brushed back hair, the same color as the little girl´s.

As the petite kid smiled and ran towards him, the stoic man's face transformed into a huge and bright smile.. The teacher had to look away to hide her blush. You couldn´t blame her, the picture was way to cute: the little girl only reached his knee; she crushed her book against her chest and stared at him with deep love and admiration. Most of the children cried or felt abandoned when their parents came late to get them, but this little one was familiar with that.

Every time was the same: The big man came late with an almost imperceptible "I´m-sorry" look, she had learnt to recognize it after witnessing them too many times. As soon as the small girl smiled at him, assuring him that it was ok, he gave her this amazing smile that was as moving for the little child as well to any spectator.

She put the book on her back pack. He extended his hand and the girl quickly held it. "Bye Sakura-sensei" She said, the green haired man nodded at her and they left the school and walked towards the woods.

"Nee, daddy you got lost?" She whispered softly.

"Of course not" He snorted.

She didn´t believe him "Did you forget the song?"

He chuckled "No"

"Do you want me to remind it to you" She looked at him and smiled.

He tried to hide his grin and turned serious "I know how to get to your school"

She stopped " Hold up your hands " and started singing

When he felt his arm tense, product of the little girl who wasn´t moving, he turned around and sighed.

" And reach your fingers to the sky " she continued and did what the lyrics said.

He looked at her but she wasn´t planning on walking again " Point your thumbs in "

He sighed again and stood in front of the tiny green haired girl " Do you wanna know why? " he mumbled and copied her movements, without doing the dancing.

She grinned at the second he started mimicking her " Because… " she looked at him expecting him to complete the sentence.

He looked right then left just to check if they were alone and said softly " Well the hand that makes an L " he looked at his hand " It´s the L…left one" he sang softly.

"Yeah!" Cheered the little girl " The other is the right "

He grinned proud.

" Stretch your arms to your sides. As far as they can go. " she stretched her arms and sang happily.

He did the same and allowed his tone to be a little higher and merrier, just a little " Look at your left hand, And you will know, That this way is left " he shook his head left.

" And the other way is right, You are learning your directions, And that is outta sight! " She finished singing cheerfully and ran to hug her daddy while he was standing like in a cross.

He put his hands behind her arms and lifted her to hug her against his chest. She quickly ran her little arms around his neck.

"I knew you ´d remember daddy"

"Of course, you taught me" He kissed the top of her head.

"Daddy, would you carry me home. I´m tired" She pouted.

"You can´t be tired! You are young!" he said.

"…and hungry!" she said that so it would affect him because when he was late, he delayed her lunch.

He sighed. "Ok, but this is the last time!" He said that every time.

The little girl climbed onto his shoulders and sat. Her short arms wrapped around his forehead.

He started walking. "Here". He handed her a tangerine. "I thought you would be hungry".

"Great!" She cheered and started peeling it.

They continued walking in silence while the girl ate the fruit.

"Let´s turn right here so we could see the big rock" She asked him.

He chuckled. She knew the way better than him and she recognized that her daddy´s directional problem was a sensitive issue for him.

He turned left "Did you do your homework already?" He asked.

"Yesh" she munched.

He held her feet as they walked, she was so tiny yet she had grown so much, It was amazing. The feeling wasn´t new for him, he was starting to get used to be surprised by his little daughter. She grew so fast: The height marks on her door were starting to look like a ruler,She was extremely smart - she had learnt the whole alphabet in a day; a hell of a swordfighter for her age: She could handle the basics with both hands - and he could go on and on, every day was thrilling when he was with her. He felt stupid when he analyzed it but he loved to be with her and watch her grow. It was an amazing experience, in the end she was something so tiny and fragile he helped create and now was turning into a real person. A strong, intelligent and beautiful person, he couldn´t be any prouder. "Was it difficult?"

"No" she said in a cocky tone.

He chuckled "What was it?"

"I had to draw a picture of 3 things we use in school and write the words" she told him.

"Oh! So you drew a sword" he said.

She exploded in laughs "No daddy! We don´t use swords in school"

"Really? Then, did you draw a pillow?" he continued with his incoherent objects propositions, he just wanted to make her laugh.

She laughed again "No! You use that in the bed! We don´t sleep at school"

"No way! How about soap?" he said smiling.

"No! That´s for the bathroom" She giggled.

They walked liked that for minutes; she laughing and giggling and him smiling from ear to ear.

"Look! A pink flower if we turn right!" she commented.

He followed her directions and saw their house on the horizon. "Then what did you draw?"

"I drew a pencil" she answered his question.

"And you wrote the word too?" He said in a surprised tone.

"Yes: a P, an E then… the N, C…. I and the L" she finished.

"Very good! And what else?"

"I drew a book: B, two Os and the one you have to draw: first a straight line from up to down, then from the center a line up and then from the center again another line down… a K" she moved her hand in the air as if she was writing it.

"Mmm… K, I can´t remember anything that starts with a K"

She thought about it for a few seconds "I know!" She raised her arm.

"What?"

"Keys, starts with a K" she said.

"Right! Very good! And what was the last thing you drew?" She was so smart. He hadn´t much experience with other kids, actually he had none other experience but he was convinced that this one was a genius.

"I wrote the word but I haven´t finish the drawing yet; a brush" she told him.

"Those are very difficult things to draw; I want to see them later"

She nodded "I'll show them to you later, I have to finish coloring them, too"

They were a few feet away from their house. It was a little cottage in the middle of the woods next to a lake.

He placed her on the grass "You should finish it while I make lunch"

"Ok" she said and they entered the house.

The room was a living room which had stairs at the back that connected to the second floor and next to it another door that leaded to the kitchen. The little girl ran towards the door and he joined her a couple of seconds later.

The kitchen had a table in the middle; Kuina placed her school utensils to finish her homework.

"What do you want to eat?" he asked her.

"Ice cream" She said in a serious tone, not changing her view from her drawing.

He chuckled "You are not going to grow tall and strong if you eat that"

"Uncle Luffy eats that all the time and he is really strong" she looked at him as she painted with her red crayon.

"Well… but… he is special" He scratched the back of his head.

"You say I´m special all the time" Another extremely intelligent fact about Kuina, she had a really good memory and was tough to beat in any discussion.

He sat next to her and petted her head "Yeah but you are special good and he is special weird"

She sighed, she didn´t get it too much but she knew it meant no ice cream for lunch "Ok. Fish?"

He rubbed his chin "How about… A tuna sandwich!"

She smiled "Yeah!"

He grinned and moved to the fridge. "Those drawings are good Kuina"

She smiled at him showing him almost all her teeth.

He grabbed bread, mayonnaise, tuna and tomato to prepare the sandwich. The swordsman quietly fixed their lunch while the little girl finished her homework, the two of them in complete silence.

After a couple of minutes Zoro arrived at the table with a dish full of sandwiches and a jar of juice.

"You havesh shto eatsh tshe wholsh shandwish" He munched.

"You shouldn´t talk with your mouth full" she scolded him.

He gulped.

The girl took tiny bites of the sandwich but ate it. Meanwhile Zoro was already eating his third.

"Daddy, would you teach me how to do a handstand later, when we train?" she asked him.

"Yes" he nodded

They finished their lunch mostly in silence. When the little girl had finished the sandwich, she jumped off her seat and started to pack her school things.

"Sit down, you have to digest your food" He grabbed the last sandwich.

"I did it already! I want to water the flowers!" She ran away to her room.

He sighed. In the end she did whatever she wanted, he was lucky she was a good girl. "BRUSH YOUR TEETH!" He finished the last sandwich and gathered the plates to do the dishes.

A few minutes later the girl came running down the stairs and opened the door of the kitchen that leaded to the back yard.

Zoro sighed again while cleaning, but the smile in his face was showing again when he spotted the petit girl filling the watering can. It was half her size, but she filled it to the top and dragged it slowly towards where her flowers were.

He finished the dishes and moved outside with her. He sat under a tree in front of her and polished his swords.

At first the girl pushed the watering can to water some flowers until it was empty enough so she could lift it.

"Daddy, what´s the name of this flower?" She asked him

"Mmm… Yellow one". He made it up, he didn´t know a thing about flowers.

She nodded "And this one?" She pointed to a protea

He looked at the flower, and said seriously: "Pink Artichoke".

"Oh, and this one?" It was a sweet William.

"Flower Afro"

The girl nodded one last time and continued watering the plants. After a few minutes she turned around and found Zoro sleeping against the tree with his hands behind his back.

She stretched her arms and yawned. She walked towards him until she could sit between his legs, rested her back on his chest and proceeded to nap with her father.

One hour later Zoro woke up. Kuina was deeply asleep on his chest and using his yukata as a blanket. He caressed her head.

"Kuina" He called her softly.

"Mmnmm" She mumbled.

"Nap is over, we have to train" he said.

"mmmjust one minutemmm" She murmured

"I´m gonna stretch" He did it and Kuina´s human bed moved waking up the girl.

"Noo" She complained.

He stood up and so did the drowsy girl.

He looked at his yukata "You drooled all over my clothes!" he pointed at her.

She cleaned her face "No way! That was already there" she pointed back at him.

"Yeah sure" he raised his eyebrows.

"I´ll go get my boken" she ran away.

He sighed again. A minute later she was back with him, holding the wooden sword and wearing her white dogi.

"We´ll run around the lake for 15 minutes and then come back" He said and the two marched next to the big lake that was behind their house in the middle of the woods.

After that they jumped the rope for several minutes. Then he tried to teach her how to do a hand stand, she couldn´t quite master the technique but she was close. Finally they moved to the sword fighting practice. He made her perform different thrusts and strikes and repeated them several times with each hand.

After almost half an hour of practising with the sword he thought it was enough. She was always willing to train with him but when something was difficult she got easily frustrated, it was a thin line because when it was too easy she stopped paying attention and got bored.

"Very good Kuina, that´s all for today" He said serious.

"Ok!" She cheered "Can I go prepare the bath?"

"Ok" He nodded.

The girl ran to the upper floor of their house. There were 2 bedrooms with two bathrooms: one was inside the main room and the other was next to the stairs. The girl filled the tub of the one inside the room.

A few minutes later Zoro joined her at the bathroom. "Are you sure you don´t want my help?" He asked.

The kid threw her clothes on the floor anxious to get inside the bathtub "No, I´m a big girl!"

"I know… I know" He picked up her clothes and threw them inside the laundry bin.

"Not with your hair, anything?" He asked again.

She shook her head "I have a plan" she got inside the water.

"Oh really?" He asked curious.

"Yes. First I´ll wash my body then shampoo my hair, after that I´ll pull the stopper out, turn the shower and rinse my hair while doing this" she put her hands over her eyes and looked up "Then I´ll move away the shower again, put the conditioner, get under the water and rinse my hair one last time"

He crossed his arms over his chest "I don´t know… what if you fall? It´s slippery"

"I put the froggies" She pointed at the rubber mat that was shaped as a frog inside the tub.

He sighed "Ok, but leave the door open, I´ll be around. Also, call me when you are clean I´m taking you out of the tub"

"Ok!" She nodded smiling.

Zoro sat on his bed next to the bathroom door but somewhere where she couldn´t see him and waited for her to finish.

Fifteen minutes later she was done so she called him.

"Very good!" He said looking at her all clean and perfumed. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her, lifted her up and carried her to her room.

"Get dressed, I´ll go heat up dinner " He rubbed her shoulders

She nodded.

"And dry your hair!" He yelled as he descended the stairs.

A few minutes later he had finished heating the meal and she arrived at the kitchen wearing her bunny patterned pajamas. She sat at the table.

"Five minutes" He told her.

"Ok" She said softly, her voice showed her exhaustion after the long day.

He put the dishes on the table and poured some juice on their glasses.

Suddenly a thunder stroke and Kuina yelled scared.

"Don´t be afraid, ot´s only lightning, It announces it´s going to rain." He took the food out of the oven and served it on the plates.

"REALLY?" She asked surprised but was answered by the sound of drops crushing on the roof. "WOW" she looked at him amazed.

He cut her meat into pieces.

"I hope we can see a rainbow again after this rain" She thought about it for a second "But if the rain ends at night, we wouldn´t be able to because you need the sun to get a rainbow".

"How do you know that?" He asked intrigued.

"I asked my teacher" She answered and took a bite of her meal.

He nodded surprised and started eating his food.

"Did you know that clouds are tiny water droplets? So tiny they float" she explained to him.

"Really? I think I heard that before" He mumbled. "You like that sky stuff, right?" He asked her.

"Yes and stars too" She answered quickly "A boy at school cuts his own food" while examining the meat pieces.

"Really?" He was surprised, he didn´t want to give her a knife yet but maybe he was being overly protective.

"Aha, with a plastic knife" she finished eating her food.

He rubbed his chin "Then we should buy you a plastic knife tomorrow so you can start practicing"

"Great!" She smiled.

He smiled brightly at her. He finished his plate "Pick up the dishes. I´ll clean, you dry!"

The two of them moved to do their duties, a couple of minutes later they were finished.

"Let´s go to bed" He said and they went upstairs.

They arrived at her bedroom, she got in her bed and he tucked her in.

"Nee daddy, If tomorrow we go to the village to get the knife, can we have some ice cream?" she asked and yawned.

"Ok" he sat next to her on the bed.

"And would you buy me a toy?" She added closing her eyes.

"We´ll see" He grinned. He was lucky they lived in the woods because that girl had a killer instinct for shopping.

"I want a book that has drawings and you can color them" Her voice faded out as she was dropping into slumber.

"Ok we´ll talk about that tomorrow" He kissed her forehead.

"I love you daddy" She mumbled.

"I love you too, sweet dreams" He closed the door of her bedroom and turned off the light.

He found himself smiling again. He sighed. The rain had turned into a storm and he decided to get a shower. Now that Kuina was asleep he had time for himself. He usually spend it bathing or doing something for the house, if not he went directly to bed. At the end, the best part of the day was when he spent it with her.

He finished his shower and put on his pajamas. They were some green silk elastic waist shorts with a matching short sleeve button-front shirt that Kuina had picked for his birthday. She drew a cute frog in the front pocket and the word Zoro.

He was about to get in the bed when he heard something. A heavy storm was going on outside, so he didn´t investigate more. Still it sounded again, so he got down the stairs and recognized it: Someone was knocking on the door.

He opened the door, wondering who could it be in this storm at this late hour, but what he found out shocked him beyond imagination.

In front of his door; soaking wet, shivering , exhausted and injured was none other than the former Mugiwara navigator: Nami

"NAMI" He breathed out.

The girl looked at him and collapsed unconscious against him.

* * *

TBC

Well I hope you like it so far! I couldn´t stop thinking about Zoro being a single father so I made up this story I hope you´ll find it entertaining. Please review it I´d like to read your opinions.

Special Thanks To BlueLion my new betareader!


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 02_

Nami opened her eyes. She was lying on a comfortable bed wearing dry clothes; well actually she was wearing a huge cotton t-shirt and her underwear. The door of the room opened and Zoro entered holding a cup of tea and several medical supplies.

"You are awake" He commented.

She moved to be in a sitting position. "Ouch!" Her whole body ached.

"You are heavily injured, what happened?" He sat on a little bench next to her and handed her the tea.

"I fell" She accepted it and took a sip.

He rolled his eyes not buying her story

"You really are a gentleman, but my underwear is wet, I´m freezing" she said looking at the wet circles on her t-shirt, product of her wet bra. "Do you have another t-shirt and some briefs?"

He sighed, opened his drawers, took out some fresh boxers and handed them to her. The redhead pulled down her panties and replaced them with his underwear. Meanwhile, he turned around to search for another t-shirt.

"You are fatter" She joked and stretched the waist of his boxers; they barely clung to her slim waist.

He turned around to give her the t-shirt and found her top naked, removing her bra.

He blushed deeply and looked away quickly.

She extended her hand to get it "Oh come on! Don't be such a baby".

He snorted and turned around to give her some privacy.

"Ready" she said.

When he turned around he found her naked again "Nami!" he complained and blushed.

She put on the t-shirt laughing "Your face is priceless"

He exhaled deeply. "Half of your body is scarred, bruised and burnt. Let me check it" He sat again next to her.

"I fell from a cliff" She said taking another sip of the tea.

He rolled his eyes. He didn´t know exactly why; if it was because he didn´t buy her story or if he believed her but wondered how she could be so careless to fall from a cliff.

She turned so he could examine her body. He pulled the t-shirt up a little and took his time to check her wounds. Most of them were scratches that didn´t seemed serious, the ones that worried him were one huge burn mark around her elbow and another similar near her hips. She must have fallen with her right side because her left one was perfect. He couldn´t help but to let his eyes wander around her body, yep she was perfect. He kicked himself mentally for letting his thoughts run that way.

She closed her eyes when she felt his raspy hand over her skin. The touch was warm and careful. His hand felt huge, she remembered it to be big, but this time it felt different. Zoro looked different from the last time she saw him, she could say he was bigger physically, but the real description that shocked her would be mature, he looked more experienced and wise.

He got a jar and took out some ointment with his fingers. "It´s going to sting a little" he ran his fingers softly over each one of her injuries.

She bit her lip and even though she didn´t say anything, her body flinched every now and then.

"So, how have you been?" He asked as if he had last seen her yesterday.

She shot a little laugh surprised by his tone and question "Very good, how about you?" he was so cool, he had always been.

"Oh, great!" He took special attention to her elbow. "I´ll use some for the burn here." He applied some more medicine on her.

"Ok" she said softly.

When he was done with that, he used some bandages to cover the injury.

"You are good at this" she commented.

"Well I had a few minor incidents when I was younger, I learned from that" he moved his face to inspect her abdomen.

She giggled "You spent a lot of budget in bandages, now that I think about it I never charged you for that"

He cleaned the wound with a wet cloth "You always went easy on me" he said ironically.

She giggled again. "Ouch!" she complained.

"You have a spike" He said and tried to remove it with his hands earning another set of Ouchs from the navigator.

"Are you going to kiss it better?" She asked seductively as she noticed his lips reaching her hips.

"No" he said and picked the spike with his teeth.

"Booo" she said disappointed.

He removed the spike and poured some alcohol on her wound.

"That must have been the most anti-hygienic medical move I´ve seen in my life" she whispered.

"You are welcome" he told her while he bandaged her.

Her gaze wandered to a picture frame that had a photo of Zoro holding Kuina. "Wow! She's really grown" she said softly almost to herself.

He moved his sight to what she was looking at. "That was last summer, she is even bigger. You should see her now!"  
At the moment he said those last words he regretted them.

"I probably shouldn´t" She mumbled.

"Yeah, turn around" He ordered her.

She did it. He lifted her shirt up enough to not expose her breast and examined her front injuries. She was ok there, just a few scars. He applied the healing ointment precisely over her injured ribs.

She stared at his face like in trance. He looked like the same Zoro she knew, but he wasn´t. She hissed in pain and her hand jumped to squish his arm.

"Sorry" he said and continued.

She took her time on removing her hand. His arm was so hard, pure muscle, she remembered he was muscular, she'd just forgotten how it felt.

Her eyes turned to his pajamas and the cute frog drawing. He was a father now, not a wild and adventurous pirate. He had a daughter, there was no more "him", now it was them. "How are… you?" she sounded somehow sad. This time the ´you´ meant something different.

He finished applying the bandages and looked at her face. "We are fine." Her eyes looked so hurt, something made him think, that it wasn´t caused by the sting of the ointment.

He stared at her eyes and she looked back at him, they stood like that for a few seconds. He waited for her to say something. She didn´t dare to talk.

"What are you doing here, Nami?" he asked. The obvious question.

Nami looked down as if her time was up, like Cinderella at 12 o´clock. "I-" but she was interrupted by a soft knock on the door.

"Daddy, I can't sleep!" Kuina said sleepily from outside.

Both of them looked at the door. Zoro stood up "Are you scared?" The sound from the storm must have frightened her.

"No! It´s the noise"

He looked at Nami, she nodded understanding and he moved outside the room, closing the door quickly so she couldn't see he had company. He lifted her up and carried her to her room.

"Can I sleep in your bed?" She pleaded.

"Weren´t you a big girl?" He asked and placed her on the bed.

"I´m not scared, just stay with me until I fall asleep" She held his hand.

"Ok but you know it´s just water, right?" He said as he tucked her in.

"I know" she yawned.

Minutes passed and the girl relaxed. She turned around and put her arms under the pillow.

"Don´t put your arms like that you´ll have those cramps again" He moved her so she slept on her side.

"Ok" she said sleepily.

He waited 5 minutes until her breathing rhythm relaxed and she was fully asleep. He kissed the top of her head. He stood up and moved back to his room.

When he opened the door he found Nami sleeping soundly. He stared at her for a few seconds and sighed. He thought he should probably let her sleep and tomorrow they´d have the talk. He grabbed a blanket, threw it on the floor and lay there.

For a few minutes he stared at the ceiling forgetting he needed to close his eyes in order to sleep. Then he shut them but either way he couldn´t drop into slumber, he blamed the hard floor, but deep down he knew the real reason: He couldn´t believe Nami was right here with him.  
The red head´s left arm fell down from the bed and hung there. He stared at it. Yep, Nami was there.  
His hand moved and attempted to hold hers but he stopped his impulse. He just compared his hand with hers, hers was so little. Not as tiny as Kuina´s but he could easily hold both of her hands with one of his. Also, her skin was so white compared to his. He started to think about the softness of her skin, of course his hand was calloused and raspy, he was a guy. Girls in general were like that but this one specifically was really soft and warm. His mind wandered off until he realized he was holding her hand.

"Damn" He complained, let go off her hand and turned to the side to sleep and stop staring at it.

Oooo

The morning came and found Zoro with his eye wide opened staring at the ceiling. He couldn´t sleep. He always had sleeping problems when he was alone with her, she was way too distracting, but this time was different. She wasn´t doing anything, she just lay there next to him. It was really close but yet so far away. Her breathing rhythm was soft but every now and then she gave little moans that made the swordsman eyes grew big.  
He blamed her for his insomnia, she had come to him out of nowhere, after all that time, after all those things they had experienced together. He spent the whole night wondering what she was doing there. Some time in the night, he sat on the floor and decided to ask her but then her relaxed sleeping expression made him dismiss that idea.  
She was much wounded, probably she was in trouble and needed his help. His mind filled with questions and answers: Why him? She could have run and ask Luffy or Sanji … well, maybe she was close by, but what would she be doing around here? … He was in Cocoyashi, it was her homeland in the end and she had any right to be there. But it had been so long, why now? He sighed and looked through the window; the first's rays of sun light appeared. Time to wake up Kuina for school and stop thinking.

He stood up and got dressed quickly. He hesitated on waking Nami up before his daughter but he wanted to talk to her alone. He stared at her for a few minutes until he noticed the time he had spent on doing that and left the room.

Oooo

Nami woke up with the sound of movement and conversation outside the room. She could hear Kuina´s soft steps followed by Zoro´s heavy ones. Next to the night table was a note, it said: "I´m going to leave Kuina at school, I´ll be back in a couple of hours". For a second she wondered why he made his daughter go to school so far away and then she remembered his directions problems.

"Come on, Kuina, breakfast is ready!"

"Daddy can I have some money for the break?" She yelled back

"No! You can have an apple" He said.

"Noo!" she complained.

Nami heard the soft steps of the young girl going down. She stretched, she woke up with her left arm numb, she hated when that happened. She looked at her body; almost her whole right side was covered in bandages. She sighed.  
She inhaled the fragrance of Zoro´s clothes. It smelled so masculine, she looked at the t-shirt, it was so big that it was the size of a dress for her, or maybe two, she liked short dresses. She inspected Zoro´s room from the bed. It didn't have much, just the bed, the wardrobe and the night table, everything was neat. She looked again at the picture. Zoro´s smile in it was breathtaking, he sure was happy. She had sensed it the night before. Then her gaze shifted to the little girl in his arms. She bit her lower lip.

Suddenly the doorknob of Zoro´s room turned a little.

"What are you doing, Kuina? WE HAVE TO GO" yelled Zoro from downstairs.

The little girl stopped at the door of his room "I´ll wash my teeth and go down!" She yelled back.

"You haven´t brushed your teeth yet? Come on!" he complained.

She opened the door of Zoro´s room.

Nami hid under the bed. She looked at the tiny feet walking inside the room and heard her open the drawer of his night table, then the sound of coins. She grinned widely at the sound of the little girl stealing his father´s money. She heard her close the drawer and move out of the room closing the door.

"I´m ready daddy!" She yelled while she ran down the stairs.

"Ok let´s go" He said

"That little thief" Nami sat back on the bed grinning from ear to ear.

Oooo

Zoro lifted the little girl in his arms.

"You are carrying me?" she asked as she accommodated herself to sit on his shoulders.

"Yeah we are really late!" He started walking.

"Not that late! We´ve been later" She commented.

"I have to do some stuff after I leave you at school" he made up.

"What?" She asked.

"Something… fix a thing" he invented.

"Left!" she pointed.

He turned left quickly.

"You should fix the mailbox, we never get any letters" she commented.

He sighed soundly.

"Left again!"

15 minutes later they arrived at the school. He let her on the grass and she waved at him. He waited for her to enter inside and he turned around. He had to return to the house to talk to Nami, quickly before he had to get Kuina back from school. It sounded easy but it wasn´t for the directionally cursed swordsman.  
He left the school area and whispered in rhythm: "Hold up your hands!" - he raised his arms.

Oooo

At Zoro´s house Nami had moved to the kitchen. Her expression turned into a big smile when she found a jar of juice and some fruits at the table. She was sure that Zoro had left them there for her.  
She sat at the table. Surely becoming a father had made him mature and pay attention to little details as this. She served herself a glass of juice and drank it. She closed her eyes and savored the tangerines. Yep, nothing felt better than the sweet flavor of Cocoyashi´s mikan juice. It tasted like home. Then she opened her eyes and remembered she was at Zoro´s house. She couldn´t help but to feel a little dumb, this wasn´t her home. She sighed.

"What the hell are you doing here Nami?" She whispered.

She grabbed an apple and looked through the window. It was a great place for a house, she would have never thought of it but it was excellent. Right next to the lake, 15 minutes away from the beach, 40 minutes from down town, exactly the quiet kind of place Zoro would like to live. Who would have thought, years ago, that Roronoa Zoro, the pirate hunter, would settle down for family? She certainly wouldn´t have.  
The thing that most called her attention in the kitchen was the fridge: it had a few children drawings probably from Zoro´s daughter. She stared at them and gulped. She was quite an artist for a 5 year old girl. Her drawings, though they were quite rustic, were well proportionate. She smiled noticing that Zoro was the protagonist of most of them.  
She walked to the living room; it had a couch, some chairs and a few shelves. There were a few pictures here and there, she looked at them. One was Zoro holding a green haired baby, he looked scared. Well actually, he looked serious but Nami could read him, he was scared. There was another with Nojiko holding an older version of the baby. She stared at it and sighed, the last one was with Luffy throwing her in the air both of them were laughing. She smiled.

She finished eating the apple and decided to go change into her clothes. She moved up to Zoro´s room and with effort and pain she put on her tight jeans and a blue tank top. It couldn´t hide the bandages on her arms. She sat again on Zoro´s bed. She closed her eyes and let her body fell down on the mattress. Her hands clung to his sheets and she sniffed them in fetal position.

"I´m happy if you are, too" she whispered with her eyes closed. It sounded more like an affirmation to herself than a sudden expression. She spent a few minutes like that and then she stood up.

She was about to get down the stairs when she took a deep breath, for courage. She turned around and headed for Kuina´s room.

There were 3 doors on the upper floor. One was Zoro´s room, the other was a bathroom and the one left was one with a sign in a star form that had the words "Kuina"

She gulped and opened the door slowly.  
It was the typical kid's room: a cute little bed, a colorful rug, a few shelves and a tiny table with a matching chair. She had several books, mostly the coloring kind and toys.  
She picked up a little pink piggy bank that was in one of her shelves, she wiggled it, it was pretty full. She put her hand inside her jeans pocket, took a few gold coins and inserted them on the piggy.  
She sat on the little chair grinning and stared at a book that called her attention, it was under the pillow. She opened it up and found a drawing that looked like a ball with a face, one eye closed with a scar and green hair that grew like grass. She smiled. Below the drawing it was written in a clumsy handwriting "Dad". The next page was another ball, this one was smaller. It was smiling and had green hair that cascaded down. It said "me" below. Then there was another ball, smiling with long blue hair and said "Aunt", another with short blonde hair with the title "Uncle". After that there were many drawings of dogs, stars, rainbows, cats, rabbits, frogs, all with their respective names. She flipped the pages and admired the drawings. Then the book was filled with another kind of drawings:: They started with a sentence "I live in…" and she wrote "Cocoyashi" and drew a beach."I like to…" and she put "Draw" and the drawing was a brush. It continued with: "My favorite food is …" "Ice cream", "My birthday is on …" "December 24th"," When I grow up I want to be a …" "Pirate". When she saw that last one, she stopped flipping the pages and stared at the drawing for several seconds; It looked like a wanted poster with a 999.999.999 bellies reward, The pirate was a stick person holding up a sword but the face was one of those balls she drew, only this time the hair was red and a name was written "Dorobo Neko". She gulped; probably she should stop looking at that thing. She put them back below the pillow and stood up.

She decided to leave the room when another picture called her attention: it was Zoro and Kuina again. They looked so happy, he looked so happy; she had never seen him like that. She stood there staring at him.

Oooo

Zoro arrived at his house. He couldn´t believe it; 30 minutes! He always took like 3 hours. It was shameful to confess it but that song Kuina taught him worked.

He hesitated before entering. He couldn´t believe this moment, it had been so long since the last time he saw her. What could she be doing here, he wondered and brushed his hair back. He stopped his hand at the back of his head and wondered what he was doing, was he trying to look good for her? "Baka!" he mumbled.

He opened the door of his house slowly. He could feel his heart beating at double speed inside his chest. He could see the kitchen from his position and noticed the juice jar was half empty. He grinned.

"Nami" He called her softly and moved to the kitchen but she wasn´t there.

He calmly moved to his room. "Nami?" but when he opened the door she wasn´t there. He walked a little faster to his private bathroom "Nami" He asked in a higher tone but he was alone in there. He ran to Kuina´s room and yelled "NAMI!" without success; she wasn´t there either, he checked the other bathroom, moved outside and rechecked the kitchen and living room.  
5 minutes later he was back inside his room alone. "Fuck!" He sat on the bed and punched it. She was gone. He cursed like he hadn´t cursed in years, he wanted to go outside and punch a tree down. She had run away, again. She left him, again. How could he be so stupid? How could he fall in her trap, again? How could he treat her so kindly and not ask her anything? How could he trust her?

He noticed a piece of paper peeking behind his pillow. He pulled it and found out it was a note: "Zoro! Thanks for helping me with my injuries, I´m sorry I had to go so quickly but you know it´s for the best. Took a few coins from your drawer, I needed the cash. Nami"  
He sighed deeply. She even robbed him. He balled his fist with the paper inside it. He heard somewhere that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If that was true he was a lunatic.  
He stood up, took a deep breath and decided to go kick that trees butt.

He opened the door of his room, took a single step and froze. His hand jumped to his katana on his side. "Could she still be here?" He wondered. He heard a soft noise in Kuina´s room. Something was wrong.

He slowly walked towards the door. He opened it and found a huge, muscular, yet, fat man searching through the room. He was doing it carefully and didn´t seem to notice his presence.

"What are you doing in here?" Zoro´s throaty and angry voice asked.

When the guy turned around to face him, he found a blade resting dangerously over his throat. "Roronoa Zoro?" He asked surprised.

"THIS IS MY HOME - WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" His eyes sparkled with fire. He was in his daughter´s room, his daughter slept there.

"I-I-I´M SORRY" The guy freaked out "I´m Hiko from the Shamanic Pirates… I thought… I didn´t want to intrude into your house. I´ve been following a thief that robbed us and her tracks leaded here" he stuttered.

Zoro felt his blood boil inside his veins. He knew who he was following.

"We don´t want to hurt anybody, we won't even hurt her if she returns the pearl" He was clearly scared and seemed to be saying the truth.

"I don´t know what you are talking about and I don´t care. I really want to slit your throat for entering my house" Zoro said.

"Look! I´ll go, I must have followed the wrong tracks. I´m sorry, you´ll never see me again" The guy begged.

Zoro opened the window of Kuina´s room "If I ever see you, or hear about you again, you and your whole shamanic crew are dead" He grabbed the huge guy from the collar of his t-shirt and threw him out of the window.

The guy landed on the ground and hobbled away "Thanks Roronoa-san" he yelled back.

Inside the room Zoro was frozen. His calm and relaxed face had tightened, he frowned. His fists were balled so tight that his knuckles were white. The most different thing on him were his eyes, they looked dark and dull. He was mad, he was furious "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH" He screamed so loud that a few trees blew away.

* * *

TBC

THANKS FOR READING, PLEASE REVIEW!

**~Karen K.**

Special thanks to BlueLion my betareader!


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 03_

Ding-dong sounded the bell of Nojiko´s house. She opened the door and her jaw dropped.

"How's my favorite sister doing?" Nami cheerfully greeted her.

"Nami!" She said truly surprised and hugged her as she came closer "What are you doing here?"

"I came to meet my niece!" She smiled at her.

"Well, you come 2 years late" Nojiko said raising an eyebrow and not believing her younger sister.

"Details!" she entered the house and the two of them moved to the kitchen.

They sat at the table and the blue haired poured her some tea "Really, what are you doing here?"

"Where is Bellmere-chan?" She sipped the tea.

She is with her father at her grandma´s house. What are you doing here?" she insisted.

Nami sighed defeated from arguing with her sister: "I happened to have some business near by."

"Really, at the same time you decided to visit your niece" she commented to prove she wasn´t interested in meeting Bellmere.

The red head didn´t answer and drank her tea.

"What happened to your arm?" Nojiko continued the interrogation.

"I fell" She said quickly.

The older girl inhaled deeply "Ok, now you are going to tell me what the hell you are doing here after 5 years"

Nami sighed again. "I was passing by and bumped into something… precious for me and some other pirates, and you know ..."

The blue haired thought about it "You robbed some pirates… the thing I don´t know, by your injuries, is if they caught you or not yet" Nojiko wondered aloud.

"They almost did but I ran away, actually, rolled away from a cliff… they were close but I got rid of them" she commented.

"They followed you here?" she asked a little worried.

"Do you think I would try to find protection from wild pirates with you?" Nami asked her with irony.

"Of course not, I know you are not stupid" She drank her tea and thought about it: of course she wouldn´t seek for her help to get rid of some pirates that were clearly over her level, she thought."OH NO!"

"What?" Nami asked.

"You went to Zoro for protection!" Nojiko said in panic.

"Oh yeah, I bumped into him, but they never came so I must have lost them" She commented lightly.

"Oh my god you saw Zoro!" She covered her mouth.

Nami nodded.

"And Kuina?" she pointed at her.

"No, no, no, just him!" she answered fast.

"What are you doing here, Nami?" she asked suspiciously.

"I already told you! I was hiding from some pirates, It was raining like hell, I was injured, he helped me, that´s all" she finished her tea.

"And?" She asked putting her chin on her fists.

"Nothing… that was all" she looked away.

"Oh come on! You haven´t seen each other in five years and you didn´t talk about it!" She said a little indignant.

"Mmno , there wasn´t much to talk" she shrugged

"You are unbelievable Nami!" She sighed "But you know, I love you, so I'm just going to play dumb and enjoy that you are here.".

"Thanks!"

The lovely fraternal moment was interrupted by another Ding-dong. Nojiko broke the embrace and went to open the door.  
At that point she kind of expected to find Zoro at the other side but she was a little surprised by his angry stance.

"I know she is here!" He moved inside her house not waiting for her answer.

Nojiko followed him "Zoro! What the hell!"

The green haired entered the kitchen and found the navigator staring surprised at him.

"YOU" he pointed at her.

She didn´t move. He looked mad, his face expression was hard and his eyes seemed to be on fire. "HOW COULD YOU!"

He walked closer to her. "I OPENED THE DOOR OF MY HOUSE TO YOU, I NEVER ASKED YOU ANYTHING"

He was really close, she had to tilt her head to look at his face "I HEALED YOU, LET YOU SLEEP IN MY BED, I DIDN´T WANT ANYTHING IN RETURN"

Nojiko stared at him a little worried; she had never seen him like this. Something deep down inside her knew he was not going to hurt Nami but from the outside it clearly looked different.

"YOU KNOW WHY? BECAUSE I DIDN´T HATE YOU, I CARED FOR YOU, I THOUGHT YOU WERE A LITTLE SCARED GIRL WITH TOO MUCH ON HER BACK FIVE YEARS , ONE DAY YOU APPEAR AT MY DOOR AND YOU TALK TO ME LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY THE LAST TIME YOU SAW ME. AND THEN AGAIN, I CARED FOR YOU, SO WHY NOT HELPING YOU AFTER ALL THIS TIME!" His voice sounded raspy and throaty.

Nami´s mouth only opened to bit her lower lip.

"BUT I WAS WRONG! YOU ARE AN IRRESPONSIBLE SELFISH BITCH AND YOU CLEARLY WERE 5 YEARS AGO!"

Nami gulped.

"YOU ARE NOT GOING TO PLAY WITH ME ANYMORE NAMI. YOU ARE NOT GOING TO PLAY WITH US. I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN, DON´T EVEN DARE TO COME CLOSE TO KUINA EVER AGAIN OR I SWEAR WE´LL RUN AWAY AND HIDE AND YOU WILL NEVER, EVER HEAR FROM US AGAIN!"

Nami could feel her eyes start to water but she tried to suppress it.

He turned around "WHAT THE FUCK DID I DO TO YOU TO TREAT ME LIKE THIS. FUCK NAMI! YOU DRAG A FUCKING PIRATE INTO KUINA´S ROOM FOR A STUPID TREASURE AND YOU DON´T EVEN WARN ME."

At that moment Nojiko worried look turned into a disapproving glance that was shot to her sister.

"Sorry Nojiko," he mumbled on his way out.

"It´s ok" she understood.

He was about to go when he turned around He was about to leave when he turned around: "I ALWAYS THOUGHT YOU WERE SCARED, BUT I WAS WRONG - YOU DON´T CARE, YOU DON'T GIVE A SHIT. YOU WERE CLEAR ABOUT IT FIVE YEARS AGO: YOU DON´T WANT US IN YOUR LIFE, AT LEAST KEEP YOUR FUCKING WORD!" He slammed the door.

As soon as the door was closed Nami broke into tears. Nojiko wanted to reprimand her sister but she looked so vulnerable she just hugged her. The red head dug her face on her neck and continued crying.

"I never wanted for any of this to happen" She sobbed.

"I know, I know" Nojiko patted her head

Ooo

Zoro was still angry but somehow getting it out of his chest helped him to calm down. He was lucky to find one of Kuina´s friends' mother going to the school, so he followed her. Somehow in his angry state he found the way to Nojiko´s house in minutes but now that he was calmer the island turned into a maze again.

He got to the school on time, just when all the kids were leaving. Kuina greeted him surprised.

"You are on time!"

"Yeah, let´s go" he said

"Yeah! Let´s go!" She jumped.

They started walking and the little girl interrupted him. "Daddy we have to go to the village"

"We´ll go tomorrow"

"But you said we´ll buy the knife today!" she complained.

"We have to go home!" he ordered.

She sniffed.

"Kuina" He called her

The little girl started sobbing "You promised" she cried softly.

He kneeled down "Don´t cry"

She rubbed her eyes while crying "You lied to me, you promised"

He sighed "I didn´t lie, something happened, we can´t go to the village now"

"What happened?" She sobbed.

He scratched the back of his head "Something…with the thing… I had to fix… It broke"

"You are lying again" she sniffed.

"I´m not lying," he assured her.

"Then what thing broke?" she stopped crying.

He carried her in his arms "Ok let's go buy that knife"

She ran her arms around his neck "Yey! And eat ice cream"

He walked "Weren´t you crying just yet?"

"I got better with the good news" she said.

"Were you trying to manipulate me with your crying?" he stopped.

"What does manipulate means?" she asked naively.

He sighed he was a little sensitive "Nothing, I´m sorry. Let´s get that knife" he kissed her head.

oooo

"If you could lend me some clothes I´ll get the hell out of here in 5 minutes" Nami said at her sister. She felt something in a mix of anger and sadness.

"Calm down! You are not going anywhere with those injuries" Nojiko stopped her and pushed her down to sit at the table again.

"It´s nothing, I don´t want to be here" She looked away.

"Oh come one! You have to meet Bellmere. Go upstairs, take a relaxing bath, just spend the night.. For me" The blue haired begged her.

"I want to die" she collapsed on the table crying again.

Nojiko caressed her hair. "He is just a little angry, but it´ll go away, you should have warned him. That´s all, he´ll forgive you, he has forgiven you for worse things!"

"Really, why are you trying to cheer me up?" Nami peeked at her from between her arms.

"I love you Nami but he was right. You should have warned him! What if the pirate entered when Kuina was in the room?"

"Look I thought that no one was following me anymore! I didn´t want to tell him because I didn't want to bring him any trouble. I regretted going to him the second I saw him" she complained.

"Then why did you do it? After all this time" It was so hard to get inside Nami´s head but Nojiko was willing to help her and to do that she needed to have all the information.

The red head sighed "I was stupid"

"Nami!" she insisted.

"I´m going to accept that bath offer" She stood up and left the room.

Nojiko stared at her with wide eyes. She knew that Zoro had overreacted and that Nami was a good person, but sometimes she did behave like a selfish bitch.

Oooo

"This one!" Kuina ran through the store to show it to Zoro.

"That´s a piggy bank not a knife!" he crossed his arms over his chest.

"I really need it, the other one is almost full. I´ll have to break it soon," She pleaded.

"You can buy it with your savings, I´m only buying the plastic knife," he said seriously.

"Ok, but could you pay for it now? I´ll return the money when I break the piggy at home," she smiled.

"I will remember that! " He said taking out the money. "Get the knife"

The little girl ran to the back of the store and came back with 2 knives.

"Why two? You are not going to break them" Zoro complained.

Kuina giggled "No! One is to eat and the other one is for cooking!"

"You are going to cook now?" He raised an eyebrow.

"I have to learn but with this I could" She said putting it on the counter so the cashier could see them.

The girl behind the counter giggled at Zoro who looked at her hopeless. "That would be all"

"And a book with recipes" Kuina ordered and then looked at her dad "So I could learn"

Zoro sighed again and the cashier smiled back at him adding the book. "That´ll be 89,90 bellis," she said sweetly.

He gave her the money and the two of them got out of the place. In his left hand Zoro had the bags and Kuina held the other one.

"Daddy, can you lend me a coin? Aunt Nojiko told me you can´t have an empty piggy bank, it´s bad luck" she said while she took it out of the bag.

He searched in his pocket and took a coin "Here"

The little girl put it inside "Let´s eat at a restaurant daddy!" She said with enthusiasm.

He chuckled. He just bought her a knife for cooking and she wanted to eat outside. "ok"

Oooo

Nami got out of the bath. She needed it. She used some healing ointments with her worst injuries, bandaged her arm and hip and went out of the bathroom. It was connected to Nojiko and her husband´s bedroom. She opened her wardrobe and grabbed another pair of jeans and a semi long sleeved shirt that covered her bandages.

"Nami" Said Nojiko behind the door.

"Come in" She answered.

The blue haired girl entered the room "Here" she handed her sister a back pack. "Fill it with any clothes you need"

"Thanks" Nami nodded.

"I´m going to buy something for dinner, do you want anything special?" She asked.

"Whatever you cook will be perfect" The red head smiled.

The blue haired girl got out of the room. Nami waited a few minutes inside it and when she heard the sound of the main door closing she moved to her sister´s drawers and started to search for something.  
She revised the room in 5 minutes and didn´t seem to find what she wanted, she moved to Bellemere´s room and repeated her actions, she did the same in several room´s until she stopped at the closet behind the stairs. There she took out a box filled with photo albums; she went through them fast, until she reached one that caught her attention. She stared at it for a couple of seconds, took out one of the pictures and hid it in her pocket. Then she put back the box in the closet and returned to Nojiko´s bedroom.

Oooo

Zoro and Kuina walked down the street. The tall man carried the bags in his left hand and held his daughter´s in the other one. He had a popsicle in his mouth. The green haired girl was holding her´s in her right hand and licked it.

"Tangerine is way better than this one," she commented.

"I´m not trading it," he replied.

"Yakk! I don´t want it! You sucked it! I had to try the pear one so I could tell which one is the best" She said as she licked the popsicle.

"And? So far? Which one is the best?" He asked.

"Tangerine" She concluded "Do you agree?".

He shrugged.

"Nee daddy, we could go visit aunt Nojiko and Bellemere, since we are here" Kuina proposed excitedly.

"NO" He said sharply.

"Why not? It´s on our way home! I´ll guide you" She pulled his hand and tried to run but he didn´t move.

"We are going home! That´s it!" he said serious.

"But!" She complained.

"Home, now" He ordered.

They walked in silence.

"I´m sorry" Kuina said softly.

"Why?" Zoro asked surprised.

"I don´t know but stop being mad at me" She pouted.

"I´m not mad at you!" he felt as if she was stabbing him right through the heart.

"Yes you are…" She looked down.

He kneeled down to look at her in the eyes "I´m not mad at you"

"Then, why are you acting so weird?" She asked biting her lower lip.

"Because…" He inhaled deeply "I have a headache. I didn´t mean to sound angry. It´s just that it hurts all the time and you know… like when your tummy aches."

"Daddy! You are ill! We should go see a doctor!" She pulled his hand.

"Don´t worry. I´m getting better, just let´s get back home quickly!" He picked her up and carried her on his shoulders.

"Ok! Left!" She guided him.

A few minutes later they were at home. Zoro put the bags in the kitchen.

"Daddy, are you feeling better now?" She asked.

"Yeah! Great!" He smiled at her.

He took the brand new piggy out of the box "You have to pay me for this" he said.

"Not now" She grabbed it.

"You can´t use it if you don´t pay it" Zoro took it from her hands.

"But…Ok I don´t want it" She ran upstairs.

He sighed. "I'll go to get your bath ready"

He moved upstairs and filled the tube for her bath, minutes later she appeared with her hands full of coins.

"Did you break your piggy?" He asked her.

"No and I won´t do it" she said seriously.

"So?" He asked.

"I thought that since I don´t want it you´ll have to sell it back and as it´s used you can´t sell it for the same price. I´ll offer you 8 Bellis for the piggy" she proposed.

"What the Hell! It cost 25!" Zoro jumped.

"Final offer" she said and proceeded to take off her clothes and get into the tub.

That little brat was scamming him. He thought it was the cutest/most horrible thing she had ever done. "Call me when you are done, I´ll get you out"

15 minutes later she called him back. He wrapped her in a towel and led her in her room. "Put on your pajamas, I´ll wait for you downstairs"

A few minutes later the two of them were enjoying their noodles. Kuina did it slowly as she was falling asleep on the table.

"Kuina! "He tried to wake her up.

"I´m tired daddy, I´m not hungry," she said sleepily.

"Come on, you have to eat more than half of the bowl" he ordered.

She yawned and continued eating at her sluggish peace.

When he was done he picked up his plate. "Ok you can go brush your teeth and sleep"

"Thanks daddy" The green haired girl stood up and moved up stairs.

Some minutes later after cleaning the kitchen Zoro went to her room. She had just entered her bed.

He sat next to her "You are so tired even when we didn´t train today"

"Daddy" she called him

"Yep" he brushed her bangs back.

"I looked up 'manipulate' in the dictionary" She confessed.

"Really?" he asked surprised.

"I didn´t meant to trick you when I cried before" she said between yawns.

"I know" He said proud.

"But I did try to manipulate you with the piggy bank" she whispered.

He grinned away from her sight "I know"

"I just don´t want to break my old piggy bank. I know it´s not fair that you sell it to me for 8 bellis," she grabbed his thumb with her whole hand.

He sighed "I know but sometimes you have to think through things before doing them. You shouldn´t have made me buy you a new piggy bank if you couldn´t afford it"

She pouted "I know"

"Ok let´s do this. If you promise me that you are going to think through more before buying things and that you are not going to manipulate me anymore I´ll give you the new piggy, for free" he offered

"I promise daddy!" She hugged him.

He patted her back.

"Even if I trick you with good intentions?" She asked.

He chuckled "You are a good person. I know everything you do is with good intentions. You don´t have to trick me. You tell me your problem, like you just did and I´ll help you to find a way to fix it"

"Ok!" she showed him her thumb

"Now go to sleep" He tucked her in bed.

"Good night daddy" Her sleepy voice was back.

"Good night Kuina" He kissed her forehead.

"Love you" she mumbled.

"I love you too" he said and left her room.

He moved to his bathroom; he needed a relaxing bath after that long day

* * *

TBC

THANKS FOR READING, PLEASE REVIEW!

**~Karen K.**

Special thanks to BlueLion my betareader!


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter 4_

* * *

Zoro turned and twisted inside his bed. He was having a nightmare: Kuina was at the kitchen with her piggybank in her arms. She was staring at him biting her lower lip and at the verge of crying. In front of her was an angry Zoro, screaming and pointing at her.

"YOU ARE NOT GOING TO MESS WITH ME ANYMORE, KUINA! WHAT THE FUCK DID I DO TO YOU TO TREAT ME LIKE THIS? KUINA! YOU MAKE ME BUY YOU A PIGGY BANK, YOU CAN´T AFFORD AND THEN YOU TRY TO MANIPULATE ME TO GIVE IT TO YOU FOR FREE! YOU ARE A SELFISH BITCH!"

Kuina stared back at him frozen and with the saddest expression.

The scene was heartbreaking for the swordsman, he looked so cruel. How could he be so mean to his little girl? Yeah, she had done things wrong, but he couldn´t treat her like that.

He woke up. He was sitting on the bed, very agitated and sweating. It was the third time that night he had woken up with the same dream. He stood up and decided to start his morning training earlier today.

He quickly put on some pants, grabbed a pair of sandals and 5 minutes later he was running by the side of the lake.

In the past he never ran for training, because he always got lost, but since Kuina had taught him that if he ran around the lake, always with the shore by his left, he wouldn´t get lost; he´d return to the deck at the back of his house, right where he started.  
He smiled remembering the day she told him that. It was last year, they had been living in that house since she was one, but it wasn't until she turned four, that the construction was finally complete.  
When she turned 4 Zoro decided that she should start training every day, one hour in the afternoon. He taught his daughter the basics of swordplay. The little girl got bored quickly, so he had to invent games to trick her into practice. Then he realized that even though she was full of energy she´ll have to discipline her body for the future and heavier training. He asked her pediatric what kind of exercises would be ok to do with her. The doctor advised him that running would be appropriate for her age. Bad news for Zoro, he thought at first but he would be surprised.  
Everything happened as expected: He started running from his house - holding Kuina´s hand - and a few feet later the woods turned into a maze. He stopped, scared, not for his sake. He was used to getting lost and wandered aimlessly around for days but he couldn´t do that with Kuina. He couldn´t get lost with his child and let her starve and freeze in the forest.  
He'd panicked. For the first time he put his fatherhood in doubt, what if he couldn´t do it? He could fight and beat anything, but his lacking sense of direction, after all those years, was unfixable.  
His mind started to run at full speed, filling him with doubts and fears when he felt Kuina´s little hand tugging his.  
"Daddy" sounded her soft voice "Aren´t we going to run?".  
He looked at her and with his eye glistening from despair he told her: "We… I´m… I got us lost" and knelt down to be at eye level with her.  
The tiny toddler stared at him blankly for a couple of seconds: "Daddy, the house is right there, we have to turn left around that tree, walk till we see a big rock that looks like a surfboard and then right on and we´ll be there." She pointed in the right direction.  
Zoro jaw dropped, big time, he ran his arms around her tiny body and crushed her against his chest.  
That was the day he found out Kuina was, well, as he called her, directionally gifted. That was the day, also, she realized her daddy had problems with routes.  
Since then she always tried to help him with that: she taught him songs, made drawings on the floor, whatever she thought would assist him.  
"Daddy, I thought of a way you could run alone: run around the lake with the shore on your left side!"  
He remembered and grinned while running. She was a genius.  
She was a fast learner when it came to sword fighting, which was his inheritance. He was sure of it, but when she showed him that kind of intelligent resolutions, he always thought about her mother.  
He didn´t notice it, but he started running faster.  
Yeah, she had his green hair and it was all he could see of him in her appearance. On the other hand when he looked at the little Kuina, he saw her. She was the exact miniaturized copy of her mother, she had her intelligence and as if that wasn´t enough, he was starting to realize that she was developing her personality. That subconscious assumption was the reason of his horrible nightmare. One question stayed in his mind: was it right to be so angry at her?

FLASHBACK: 7 YEARS AGO

The moonlight barely illuminated one of the Thousand Sunny´s quarters. Inside it, over a messy bed were Zoro and Nami. The green haired had his back against the wall and his eyes closed, over his bare chest rested the navigator, who had a loose blanket wrapped around her body. His left arm relaxed over her left shoulder while his right hand was playing patterns on top of the red head´s belly. She had her hands on top of his and her eyes were lazily opened.

"Robin told me she is leaving the crew" She commented.

"Really?" He didn´t sound very surprised.

"Yep, her and Franky, in a month," her hand caressed his.

"First the Ero Cook then Brook" He commented.

"They want to settle down" She tilted her head to look at him.

He didn´t say anything and continued with his eyes closed.

She nipped his neck softly.

"Settle down, they are old" he snorted.

She giggled "You wouldn´t leave this life of piracy and adventure, right?"

He chuckled and opened his eyes. "It´s not as much fun as it used to be, but it´s all I know." He hugged her around the waist.

Nami relaxed her head on his chest and sighed.

"Why? Are you planning to leave us?" He moved his body to look into her eyes.

She smiled, noticing the concern in his eyes. "I´m not planning to leave you." She said it in a way he couldn´t tell if she was talking about leaving him or the crew. "I have maps to draw," she kissed him softly.

He grinned at her response and deepened the kiss. The red head ran her arms around his neck and he pushed her down to the mattress. "I don´t see you doing any mapping" he broke the kiss and grinned.

Her hands danced over his chest "Do you want me to go mapping?" she asked seductively.

He looked at her seriously. "I don´t want you to go!" He kissed her sweetly for a few seconds until Nami hugged him tighter, pulling him down on her.

END OF FLASHBACK

He stopped at the side of the deck and walked slowly inside the house.

"KUINA WAKE UP!" He yelled and moved to the second floor. He opened the door of her room and called her again "Kuina!"

The girl hid her head under the pillow "Shh… sleep"

He smiled. Well, maybe she had gotten her passion for sleeping from him.

Oooo

Nami finished washing the breakfast dishes at Nojiko´s house when her sister entered holding her 2 years old daughter in her arms.

"Aunty Nami wants to hold you," she told the toddler.

The red haired turned and looked at her sister "I don´t know…" but it was too late. Nojiko was placing the girl in her arms.

Nami held her awkwardly for a couple of seconds until she relaxed "She is too cute" she smiled.

"Yes, she is." She toyed with her little feet.

They stayed like that for a couple of minutes. Nojiko noticed the way Nami looked at the baby: it was a mix of curiosity and sadness.

"Do you want to meet her some day?" The blue haired asked softly.

Nami looked at her sister not getting the question until she recognized the melancholic stare. "I probably shouldn´t"

"I´m not asking what you should do" Nojiko insisted.

Nami didn´t answer and looked down at the baby.

"She is the smartest kid I know and I knew one when I was young that was a genius" Nojiko commented.

Nami remained looking down without moving.

"You should see her holding her father´s hand, guiding him around the island, it´s the cutest scene" she continued.

Nojiko heard her gulp and resumed with the story. "Every now and then they end up passing by a store and she makes him buy her ice cream or toys. He complains every time, but he always ends up doing what she wants," she giggled softly remembering.

For the first time Nami tilted her head and looked at her sister with watery eyes.

"She is great" She smiled at her.

Ding-dong sounded the door.

"Give her to me, it must be Pauly who forgot something" Nojiko extended her arms "It´s bath time" she said to the child.

Nami gave her the baby and sat down at the table while her sister moved to answer the door. She got lost in her own thoughts: How it felt to hold such a tiny baby, how fragile it seemed, how heartless you have to be to leave such a small and vulnerable baby. Her throat tensed, she had never thought of it like that until a couple of months ago. She felt her eyes fill with tears.  
She'd always wondered if they had made the right decision, lately she started to doubt about it. Especially if it had been a one-sided decision, her decision and a few months ago something she had been trying to avoid, appeared: guilt.

"Nami" a male voice called her.

She turned around to face him and at the same time, tried to wipe the tears from her eyes with her hand.

Roronoa Zoro was in front of her, a few steps behind him, Nojiko staring at them.

She panicked but noticed he looked different from yesterday. She couldn´t move or speak, anything.

He looked at her in the eyes "Nami… I… I just wanted to say… I´m sorry" His sight shifted down, ashamed.

Nami´s chin trembled.

"I was way out of line yesterday. I didn´t mean the things I said," he continued calmly. "I don´t expect you to forgive me. I just thought through what happened and… Well, I know you are a good person inside, I know you would never want to put Kuina in danger and I know you are too stubborn to ask for help but if you came to me, it must be because you are in deep trouble - so, if you need my help…," he looked at her grinning timidly. "I´m here for you!"

Nami was flabbergasted. She couldn´t believe what she was hearing. She was sure she deserved everything Zoro had told her the day before, how could he have changed his mind? How could he look at her like that? Like he still appreciated her, like he still cared! Sometimes it seemed like Zoro had more faith in her than herself. It was extremely self assuring but it also made her feel awful about the tricks, lies and everything wrong she had done to him.

Zoro waited for her to say something and after a couple of seconds he interrupted her trance: "Well, I´ll be at my house, if you need anything!"  
He turned around to go.

Nojiko, who was jaw dropping while holding the baby, shot Nami a glance.

"Zo…Zoro!" She ran after him.

The green haired turned around and found her closer than he imagined. Her hand jumped to hold his.  
"I´m…I´m sorry" She whispered almost inaudible. The mere fact of speaking those words aloud and looking him in the eye made the red head start crying and look away.

When he said those words before, about forgiving her, he had felt stupid. He had swallowed all his pride and taken the risk of being played by her again, but he'd done it anyway, because he had thought it through: Nami wasn´t a selfish bitch, she still was a scared little girl. Now he looked at Nami hiding her eyes, her voice breaking, and her soft sobbing. He felt relieved doing it. He'd been right, her reaction proved it to him.  
He put his big hand under her chin and lifted her head so he could see her face. His hand shifted to clean it from the tears. "It´s ok."

She glanced at him again, he looked so calm. She stopped crying but she couldn´t say anything.

Zoro looked at her sister: "Nojiko, could you fetch Kuina from school today and watch her?"

The blue haired nodded.

"So, tell me about those Shamanic pirates" he asked and walked her outside the house.

The two of them went around the island. She started telling her story, he listened carefully without interrupting her. He took the opportunity to examine herShe looked exactly like he'd remembered her: long wavy, tangerine hair, peachy pale skin, breathtaking silhouette, the only thing that looked different on her were her eyes. They didn´t have that fiery spark they had when they were sailing the seas on the Thousand Sunny and they didn´t contain that dull shade of gloominess that he noticed when they met at Cocoyashi more than 5 years ago. They looked cold and hurt.  
After a couple of minutes of walking they ended at the beach.

"Really Nami? I don´t get you. Couldn´t you give those guys the pearl so they leave you alone? Aren´t you rich enough already?" He asked her.

He didn´t want to judge her, she knew it, he just wanted to understand her.

"No" she crossed her arms over her chest and pouted "I need it"

He sighed, grinning a little. Those reactions were totally Nami and he liked that she was herself, or well, that she was like he used to know her at those times, he considered the best of their lives.

"Come on! Just come with me and scare them a little, so they´ll leave me alone," she pouted. "I bet you haven´t gotten a decent fight in years!"

He sighed again "Decent… No I haven´t but the pirate I bumped in yesterday didn´t seem too challenging"

They walked side by side at the shore, the water of the sea splashing against their feet.

"Are you going to help me or not?" She stopped walking and placed her arms on her hips.

Zoro who'd continued walking for a few steps turned around to look at her.

"You never paid me your debt, you know," she said trying not to giggle, but a small smirk formed on her lips.

He chuckled "Now you are extorting me"

She smiled at him and he had no other option but to grin at her. "I already told you I was going to help you and don´t worry, I´ll accept the consequences. I´m doing this because I want, not because of you extorting me."

"Zoro," she said as if she had just been found out.

He turned around to keep walking but she pulled his hand. He looked back at her curiously, but she was looking at her feet.

"Hey," he said and seconds later she crushed her body against his and hid her face in his chest. He hugged her protectively. "Everything is going to be ok," he really was intrigued with the powers those shamanic pirates could have, if they could make Nami so scared.

"Thank you, Zoro!" She hugged him tightly.

He couldn't help but smell the fragrance of her hair. It still seemed so familiar. The thing he had forgotten was how tiny she felt between his arms, how fragile. He felt he didn´t care about whatever she had done before, he would protect her.

She allowed herself to close her eyes for a few seconds and feel his warm skin against her cheek. He was so big, nothing could hurt her when she was with him. She thought about how paradoxical it was that she felt indestructible when she was with him, he was invincible to the rest of the world, but she knew she was his Achilles heel. She could break him with one snap of her fingers. She wasn´t proud of it. She hated it. She hated making him feel like that, it was as if she was poison, the devil and he was an angel with his cheek swollen and red from turning them to her. And after knowing all of this, she was there with him, between his arms and not regretting a second of it.

Her face tilted up and she stared into his eyes. He felt as if time had frozen, for a moment he was on the deck of the Thousand Sunny in one of their past rendezvous. Her face looked so…, her lips were getting closer, so tempting.

"Let´s get them!" He broke the hug.

"Wha?" Nami stared at him. She felt as if someone had just popped her bubble.

"Those pirates" He insisted.

She sighed. Of course she wanted to kiss him and hug him and stay there with him, but she didn´t want to hurt him again and she knew that if she did something like that it would only mess up things for worse. "Oh…yeah… I have to get something I left at Nojiko´s"

He nodded and the two of them started walking back.

"Kuina must be at her house" he said looking at the sun.

"I´ll sneak in, don´t worry about it" she grinned. That´s when she noticed that they had been holding hands for the whole time. She didn´t comment anything about it. She was guiding him, it was imperative to hold him in order to do it more efficiently so why would she say something about it that could jeopardize the warm feeling of his big and calloused hand holding hers.

They arrived close to Nojiko´s house. "Wait there, I´ll be back in a minute"

Zoro sat down at a park bench a few blocks from Nojiko´s house. He watched her go.  
He sighed remembering the day she left the crew. None of the remaining Mujiwaras had seen her for the whole day. He'd knocked on her door, but she never answered it, he prevailed and after half an hour of no response he was about to knock the door down. Then, as he turned the knob, it opened smoothly. He knew that something was wrong the second he noticed it wasn´t locked. The room was perfectly neat, not a single shirt out of her closet, nor a map on her table. On top of her desk there was a note. It read: "Dear Mugiwaras. My time on this crew is over, sorry you have to found about it this way, but I´m a big chicken to face you with the news. I know you won´t be shocked, because I´m not the first one to go. I just wanted to let you know that I love you, all of you, thanks for everything. Don´t come search for me, I´m ok… let me process this for a couple of months and I bet we´ll meet again on one of the seven seas", signed Nami.  
That second he'd felt as if his heart had shrunken, his mouth got dry and he forgot how to breathe. Since that day he had never been the same.  
As she disappeared from his view he took a deep breath.

Nami sneaked into her sister's house. Luckily she was alone. She ran to her sister´s room and heard the sound of the main door opening.

"And then when the teacher asked I raised my hand and no one knew the answer," the voice of a little girl sounded.

"Wow Kuina! Even I don´t know the answer" Nojiko said.

Nami softly closed the door and the sound of voices faded out, as they moved to the kitchen.

She searched for her back pack. She cursed; Nojiko had taken it out of the bathroom where she'd left it. She moved back to the room and spotted it on top of a chair.

"Who are you?" the soft voice of a child called her.

Nami panicked. She didn´t want to turn around knowing that the reason of her worst fears was right behind her. She gulped. "I´m one of Nojiko´s friends"

"What are you doing here? Auntie Nojiko is in the kitchen," she commented happily.

Nami still couldn´t get how she had been able to sneak up on her like that. "I´m looking for something I left here and I´ll be gone. I don´t want to bother her" she nervously searched through the back pack trying not to look at her.

She moved next to her. "I´m Kuina"

Like in slow motion the red head turned her face to the source of the voice. The pearl that she was holding between her fingers fell with her body to the ground. She ended up sitting on the floor. Kuina stared at her smiling.  
Nami froze. She looked exactly like her at that age. It was amazing, she had seen photos of herself at that age and she was the copy, the green haired copy.

"Are you ok?" the little girl asked.

Nami opened her mouth but the words didn´t flow.

"Is this what you were looking for?" The little girl grabbed the pearl and put it into her t-shirt pocket.

She extended her arm and her hand caressed her little cheek. She was the cutest and most amazing thing she had ever seen.

"Why are you crying? Are you hurt?" Kuina asked worried.

"No… I´m ok" Nami said sniffing the tears away.

The girl smiled.

"I have to go," the navigator said to herself. " I have to go," she said to the girl and stood up.

"Oh… Ok" The girl looked down.

"I," Nami said when she noticed the change in her attitude. "I heard you want to be a pirate when you grow up!"

The green haired child looked at her and nodded exited.

"You know what you need?" She said assuring.

"What?" The girl said with enthusiasm.

Nami took off the pose from her wrist. "A log pose!," she gave it to her.

"NO WAY! A LOG POSE" She cheered overly excited.

Nami couldn´t help but to smile from ear to ear after her reaction. "You´ll need that if you want to sail…"

"In the Grand line, I know!" The little girl interrupted her, but didn´t take her eyes off the pose.

The red head smiled wider, proud. Apparently Nojiko was right: she was really smart. "Well I have to go now. It was nice meeting you… Please don´t tell…"

"…My aunt you were here. I know, you don´t want to bother her" Kuina said, she didn´t sound as cheerful as before.

"Exactly" Nami moved away.

The little girl waited for the red head to go, put the pose inside her front pocket pouch and returned to the kitchen.

"Lunch is ready!" Nojiko called her.

The little girl sat at the table "Nee, auntie when I´ll become a pirate, you´ll miss me, right?" she asked

"OF COURSE! Thanks god that it would be in many, many years" Nojiko said and hugged her.

"Don´t worry I´ll write you a letter every week" Kuina smiled at her.

"Really? I bet you´ll be a really busy pirate to write me every week" The blue haired said as she served her lunch.

"Yes but I wouldn´t mind, I wouldn´t want you to be sad missing me" she took a sip of the juice.

Nojiko kissed her head. "You are so cute"

* * *

TBC

THANKS FOR READING, PLEASE REVIEW!

**~Karen K.**

Special thanks to BlueLion my betareader!

A/N: Thanks to all my wonderful reviewers you make me deeply happy.

epaulineb, fmdevil, Kawaii Neko Nami, Mushroom Pizza, woowoo13, Yuseff-san and the everchanging


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter 5_

* * *

Nami had been 15 minutes inside Nojiko´s house but she spent almost 30 crying behind a tree a block away from there. The freaking guilt was driving her insane and seeing Kuina was like pouring lemon juice into a stab injury.  
She hid because she didn´t want Zoro to see her like that, she didn´t want to tell him she had seen her because he sure will worry about it and get mad at her again, and she didn´t know if she could endure another angry scene with him.

Ooo

Zoro waited for her sitting on the bench at the park. He wondered how much that pearl would cost for Nami to ask for his help. He was starting to think he would never see her again. He'd been starting to think he would never see her again. He'd begun to forget her when she appeared and all the feelings for her came right back like as it was 5 years ago.  
He cursed, he didn´t want to feel like that. Sooner or later she was going to go and leave him and he didn't want to miss her all over again.  
She needed his help, he couldn´t deny that to her, she was his nakama in the end. They could stop being lovers at anytime, but they would be nakama forever. He would help her with this stupid pearl thing regardless whatever he thought of it. He had to admit that something about her story wasn´t convincing. When she'd told him about the Shamanic Pirates he couldn´t help but to remember the letter, that stupid letter she had left for the crew 6 years ago, a letter that lied.

FLASHBACK

After reading the letter Zoro searched for Nami around the whole ship for several hours. Chopper, noticing his anxiousness, stopped him and wondered what was going on. That was when he showed the letter to the crew.  
No one was pleased with the way she decided to handle the situation but as she requested, they didn´t go look for her. Zoro didn´t agree with the captain´s decision of accepting what Nami proposed in the letter but he was so angry at her that being away from her was probably for the best.  
The next few days Zoro trained for hours and hours, he barely left the training room, just for food when it was extremely necessary.  
When his anger started to fade and he'd begun to wonder if the reason of her departure was something he had done, they bumped into Robin and Franky.  
The remaining Mugiwara´s of the crew were Luffy, Zoro, Chopper and Ussop.  
The couple was travelling around some vacation islands of the grand line when they spotted the Sunny and decided to meet their former crewmates.  
It had been a year since they'd left the Sunny and the four of them jawdropped when they met them, especially when they noticed the huge cyborg carrying a tiny baby between his arms. The four of them congratulated them for their new son. He had dark black hair and the biggest blue eyes, like Robin.  
They spent a few hours catching up and told them Nami had left the crew. Robin commented a soft "Mph" when she heard about the letter.  
While Franky, Luffy, Ussop and Chopper played with the baby, Robin managed to talk to the swordsman.

"How are you doing Zoro-San?" She asked.

"Ok" he said sharply.

"I know you and Nami-san are close so, do you know how she is? I haven´t received a letter from her in months "

"I don´t know anything about her since the time she left the crew and that was 3 months ago" he sounded hurt.

"Oh" she said surprised "But I bet you know the real explanation of why she left, right?"

"Real?" He wondered at loud.

"She didn´t tell you anything? Do you think she left for the reasons she wrote in that letter?" She asked him.

Now that Robin mentioned it like that, his doubts turned into a sense of guilt. "No, I don´t," he blurted out.

"And you let her go anyway?" She raised an eyebrow

"I-I-" He couldn´t complete the sentence feeling utterly stupid.

"What did you do?" She was really intrigued.

"Nothing," he said in his defense as he tried to remember every moment they spent together in the weeks before she left, searching for something that might have upset her. "I did nothing, Robin" he whispered softly and sad.

"Are you ok with this Zoro-san?" She asked him in that wise tone of hers.

"No!" He said frustrated.

"Then you should do something about it" she smiled at him.

That was the last day he spent on the Sunny. That day he said good bye to his nakamas and went to look for her.

END OF FLASHBACK

"I´m back!" Nami greeted him cheerfully.

"Hey! You took your time" He commented.

Nami extended her hand "That Nojiko is so obsessive! She moved my things from one room to the other"

Zoro nodded, he knew Nojiko had some kind of fixation with order. He grabbed her hand. Then he noticed he had been holding her hand for the whole day and blushed. "I´m not going to get lost you know"

It was Nami´s turn to blush softly "That´s not what I´ve heard…"

"I live here!" He said offended while they walked to the port.

"Ok, I let you lead. The pirates docked at the port that used to be Arlong Park" She let go his hand and crossed her arms.

He frowned "OK".

She didn´t move and waited for him. He turned around, presenting his back to her, walked away a few steps and stopped again.

He seemed to be whispering something "What are you doing?"

He didn´t answer.

Patience wasn´t one of the adjectives that would describe her, so she moved closer to him and insisted "Hey!" She found Zoro in deep concentration whispering something and making some kind of weird movements with his thumbs. "What are you doing?"

He extended his left arm forward "There!" he answered her solemnly.

Nami looked at where his finger pointed. Incredibly, he was right "Yeah!" She said surprised.

"See! Well, now you can continue with the guiding. I just wanted to prove it to you," he said. In the end he could have spent the rest of the week trying to get there with his method.

Nami giggled "Ok" they started walking.

"You don´t want me to hold your hand?" she commented as they walked through the little village down town.

"I don´t think that´s necessary," he said looking forward.

"Yeah… What would your girlfriend think if she sees us holding hands" She said looking at the girls that walked by. Every now and then some of them greeted Zoro. Oldest trick in the book, she thought, but this was Zoro, he would never get that it was a trick to know if he was seeing anyone. Also Nami was the jealous type, all those protective comments erupted inside her.

"WHAT?" He yelled surprised.

Nami tried not to laugh at his reaction. "Oh come on! I know that every woman in this town must be drooling over you: Powerful, rich, handsome, lovingly single father" She was a little intrigued about his response.

"Shut up!" They started to leave downtown and head to the port. "I don´t have time for that"

"For what?" she asked, already knowing the answer, but she wanted to hear it from him.

He sighed "For love"

She chuckled "Yeah, like you could decide that"

He looked at her while she talked.

She laughed "Like you could say: Oh no! I won´t be in love anymore, shut down heart" She giggled "It won´t work. You could try to believe that, try to hide your feelings, distract yourself with other things: adventure, shopping, alcohol. You are going to reach a point when you would think that you have forgotten about what´s love about but it would be all a lie. You would see him again, exactly like the last time you saw him but even more handsome and brave and kind and… perfect… and everything you tried to put away would be right back in your heart… but with so much weight that it will hurt you to even breath" She didn´t know when she'd stopped explaining her point and started confessing her feelings, but at some time she and Zoro had stopped walking.  
He was right in front of her staring into her eyes. She felt deeply ashamed for a second when something struck her. It was something warm and nice. She didn´t know how but Zoro was kissing her. Her arms jumped to his neck and she crushed her body hard against him. He kissed her desperately, full of passion. Her words had described exactly what he'd felt since he saw her that stormy day she'd knocked on his door.  
She kissed him back with all her might, trying to transmit the feelings she had been hiding from him. His hands pressed her back against him, as if he was trying to melt the two bodies together. They felt like, 5, 6,7,10 years ago.  
Her feminine scent, the way he nipped her lower lip, how she liked to play with her nails against the nape of his neck, how tiny was her waist between his arms, everything was just how it used to be, how they had dreamed about so many times in the last years.  
Zoro tried to break the kiss to breath but Nami pulled him closer again, engaging another round of passionate kissing.  
After a couple of minutes he stopped. Placing his forehead on top of hers, grabbing her face between his hands and looking deeply into her eyes, he asked "Nami"  
She smiled widely, loosing herself in his eye.  
"Let´s go home" He kissed her again, this time it was sweet and caring.  
Nami returned the kiss for a couple of seconds. She thought about his phrase ´Home´ and remembered her objective "I have to see those pirates" she tried to continue kissing him but he started to move away.

"Zoro!" She pulled his hand.

"We shouldn´t have done that" He said angry and moved away. He had lost his mind in the last few seconds. He had invited her to his home, knowing it meant everything to him, he had offered her a part in his family and she, she just wanted that stupid treasure.

"Zoro!" she followed him.

He sighed in frustration. He was so angry and hurt, and the worst of all, that feeling was becoming pretty familiar.

She grabbed his arm and pulled him back so he could look at her. "Zoro, what do you want?" she asked honestly. Maybe there was still hope for them, maybe if he forgave her, she could forgive herself.

He sighed. Did he love her? Did he want to be with her? His last days with her had driven him insane; did he want that for him? And for Kuina?. "I don´t know"

She was a little disappointed with his answer but she expected it at some point "Then help me with this" she grabbed his hand.

He accepted it and the two of them walked towards the port in complete silence and deep thought. Nami looked at him every now and then, but his vision was focused on her feet just to keep track with her.

The navigator cursed in silence. She shouldn´t have met him, she shouldn´t have expressed her feelings. She felt depression growing inside of her, it was starting to feel like 5 years ago.

FLASHBACK

Ding-dong sounded the bell of Nojiko´s house. The blue haired opened the door and the second she recognized the figure that was standing in front of her, jumped to greet her.

"NAMIII!"

"Hey," the red head answered coldly.

"What are you doing here! I´ve missed you so much! I want to talk about so many things! TELL ME EVERYTHING!" She hugged her and dragged her to the kitchen.

"Well…" Said the navigator "I´m pregnant"

"WHA!" Yelled the older sister and quickly sat in front of her noticing that Nami wasn´t celebrating it. "What… I mean… how…why… are you here?"

"I don´t want to be a mother, I´m a pirate" She sounded like in trance.

"Well… you…" Nojiko didn´t know where to start from "Are you going to terminate it?"

"I´m not 15, I´m responsible about this. It wouldn´t be fair," she said in an unhappy monotone.

"Nami" Nojiko pitied her "What are you going to do then?"

"I´m going to be a responsible and unhappy mother" She looked at her sister in the eyes, gulped and started crying.

The blue haired moved to hug her "Everything is going to be alright"

END OF FLASHBACK

The climate between them was tense. All he did was regret. How on earth had he ended up kissing her? He couldn´t believe how irresponsible he was. What did he think? That she was going to fall in love with him again and give up her pirate life to form a family with him and Kuina? God damn, sometimes he was so stupid. But on the other hand, the way she'd kissed him back, he could totally feel a deep connection between the two of them.. Could she be trying to deceive him to protect him? It wouldn´t be the first time, but knowing the way he had reacted to those kind of tricks in the past, she should know that lying to him would be even more disappointing and hurting than whatever she was trying to protect him from.

FLASHBACK

Since he'd left the Thousand Sunny Zoro had spent two months searching for Nami. He was sure he would find her in Cocoyashi, her native island, the problem was getting there. After a lot of asking, threatening, taking hostages etc. for directions, he'd arrived at the island.  
The green haired asked everyone passing by if they had seen Nami. He looked so desperate and intimidating that he found his answers quickly. Two hours after docking on Cocoyashi, he had arrived at Nojiko´s house only to find it empty.  
He ran around the island aimlessly, searching for the navigator. A few locals confirmed him that she was in town, so his search turned desperate.  
He remembered the scene like it was a picture he had seen too many times. The sun was setting down, he was running on Cocyashi´s main street that was filled with shops and carts on the sidewalk. Right in front of an Ice cream place he found them. He could see Nojiko enjoying a pink colored snow cone, next to her, giving her back straight to Zoro was Nami. Her long red hair surpassed her waist. He stopped running and moved closer to her, tapped her shoulder and called her.  
The rest of the memory was like in slow motion. First it was Nami´s surprised expression, then he called her again and she looked down. The next thing he remembered was the navigator's huge pregnant belly, him trying to form a word, suddenly, vision got foggier and black.  
Yes, Roronoa Zoro had fainted.  
When he opened his eyes he was laying on the street and Nojiko was treating his wounds.  
"What the?" He said. His head ached as if it was opened in half.

"I think you need stitches, lets go to the hospital" the blue haired said but the swordsman was standing up.

"Where is Nami?" He asked her. Blood cascaded down his head to his scarred eye.

"Zoro you are bleeding like hell!" Nojiko ordered him.

"I have to see her, she is…" He couldn´t process what he had seen.

"Look. I know you want to see her but she… she is not in a very good mood" She told him, trying to avert him on her depression.

"Please, Help me. I just want to talk to her" He begged.

"Zoro" Nami called him in a cold voice tone.

He turned around, half of his face was covered in blood "Nami, you are…"

"Pregnant" She finished his sentence.

He moved closer to her and tried to hold her hand "You should have told me I… I´m here" he really didn´t know what to say or do. He felt so bad, like he had abandoned her, she was trying to deal with it alone. Her eyes looked so sad and dull, he had never seen her like that.

She looked down and then glared at him coldly: "It´s not yours, so it´s not your problem!"

Suddenly the pain in his head felt like a tickle compared to the sensation of his heart exploding in his chest. She was pregnant with another man's child? She had been with another man at the same time she was with him?

"Let´s go Nojiko" Nami turned around. The blue haired joined her quickly and the two girls left, leaving the bleeding Zoro frozen in the middle of the street.

Later that night, Nami and Nojiko enjoyed dinner in deep silence. The blue haired had tried to bring up what had happened with Zoro but her little sister refused to talk about it.  
The girls finished and the older one started to do the dishes.

Ding-dong sounded the bell of Nojikos house. The red head moved to open the door.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she shouted when she opened the door and found the, still bleeding, swordsman.

"Nami please, let me talk to you" He insisted.

"Fuck Zoro! It´s not your problem! I´ve told you already" She said angrily and without letting the door go, hoping he would leave soon.

"I… I know It´s not mine and I'´m not going to lie to you. I´m not happy about it, It hurts" He said looking down.

Nami stared at him impatiently.

"But you don´t have to run away. I know you must be scared and sad, you don´t have to do this on your own. I want to be here for you" he looked at her.

Her chin trembled as she listened to him. "DAMN ZORO!" She yelled and started crying without control "I TOLD YOU IT´S NOT YOUR PROBLEM, GO AWAY, GO SAIL AROUND THE WORLD, LIVE A LIFE OF ADVENTURE, BE FREE. IT´S NOT YOUR PROBLEM!"

"But…" he said softly and grabbed her hands to pull her closer to him "I don´t want to go if you are sad" His hands climbed her back and pulled her head against his chest. "I´ll stay with you until you feel ok"

She melted in his chest and started crying profusely, you could barely get what she said but it was something like: I don´t want to be a mother, I want to go back in time, I´m scared, it's never gonna be the same, I have many maps to draw.

"Everything is going to be ok" he patted her head and hugged her closer.

END OF FLASHBACK

"That´s it," she pointed at a big black ship with a devilesque mask with creepy horns.

"Ok, wait here" He started climbing the ladder.

As soon as he landed on the deck he heard Nami´s heels tapping the floor behind him. "I told you to wait down there!" he said angrily.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't our one and only favorite thief Nami, the burglar cat!" An Indian like man suddenly appeared in front of him. He had long black hair, his height: gigantic, twice the size of Zoro, his face was painted with red stripes on his cheeks and had a black suite with feathers coming from inside his sleeves. He was thin as Brook and he bended completely to talk in front of their faces.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't our one and only favorite thief Nami, the burglar cat!" An Indian like man suddenly appeared in front of him.

Ten men dressed in the same fashion but with white suites gathered around them.

"And this is Roronoa Zoro. Is he your bodyguard?" It was like he could twist his body like a snake around them. "I thought you were a man of honor Roronoa, I didn´t know you worked for robbers" he said looking at him.

"I'm here for my Nakama" he said seriously and frowned at the weird guy. "I´m here because…"

"I have to talk to you" She moved in front of him, leaving Zoro behind her.

"Are you here to return the pearl my dear?" He asked politely.

"Nami!" He walked next to her.

"It´s ok Zoro, I can handle it from here" she whispered to him. "No, I´m not here to return the pearl… I have a few questions for you and you better answer them or Roronoa Zoro is going to unleash his wrath on you!" She yelled.

Zoro wondered what the hell she was doing, what questions? He was supposed to scare them to leave her alone, not being the bully while she extorted these people.

The tall guy laughed. "Let me see, you played my friend for several months in order to gain my trust only to betray it later on, to rob my treasure, hurt my crew members and steal powerful magic artifacts, then you appear with your ferocious bodyguard and threaten the lives of all of us?" he commented lightly while all of his crewmates laughed. "I realize what you see in her, she is quiet a catch" he said to the swordsman ironically.

"I´ll give you back your treasure" She offered.

Zoro´s sight shifted to Nami abruptly, he would have never thought she would say something like that.

"You´ll return to me all the stuff you robbed me, just if I answer you a question?" He wondered out loud.

"Not all of it and a few questions"

Zoro snorted. Of course she was going to manage to give him all the obsolete things and trick him to go away while she kept the good stuff.

The tall guy and the whole crew laughed again "You have some nerve Dorobo Neko, what is it that you want to know?"

"In private…" she said.

"I know that your dear Roronoa-san would protect you with his life. Even so, I still can´t seem to imagine the lie you told him to bring him here but I don´t think he would kill us if we don´t answer your questions," he started telling to the crew and ended up whispering it in her ear.

She clenched her teeth.

"Tell, me Roronoa-san. What are you doing here?" He asked him smiling

"I-" He started to reply but she interrupted him.

"Don´t talk to him!" She yelled at the Shamanic pirate who laughed frenetically again.

"This one is feisty" he said to the crew. "I think she did you a favor, imagine that temper every morning" He said it as if he was talking to Zoro in silence but everybody could hear him.

"SHUT UP SHINTO!" she was reaching the edge of her patience.

Suddenly the sky turned black and the laughing expression of the captain turned "Look Nami, you robbed us a year ago and since then we have been following you, we will follow you to the end of the sea and recover that pearl, you could still search in every book that´s written how to use it without success," he yelled at her face.

When he stopped he felt Zoro´s blade against his neck.

Nami was pale, clearly scared by his actions.

"Enough!" the swordsman said menacing. "You´ll do whatever she says," he ordered.

"Really Roronoa? You are going to help her even though you don´t know what she's up to," he asked him.

He pushed his sword forward making the pirate move away and using his left hand to pull her behind him. "I don´t care if she lies, steals, cheats, deceives - if she needs me I´ll be there for her, ALWAYS!"

"Zoro" she mumbled.

"I don´t know how a witch could conquer such pure heart" he commented to the crew "In the end I can´t resist a hero… I´ll do whatever you want Roronoa"

Zoro was surprised "Well… If you answer her questions, she´ll give you most of your things back" He looked at Nami from the corner of his eye who nodded smiling.

The shamanic pirate sighed. "Bring the pearl, I´ll show you how it works," he said bored.

"Yeah!" She pecked Zoro on the cheek and moved towards the tall pirate.

The girl walked smiling while she searched for the pearl inside her shirt pocket. Suddenly she stopped, she froze, her face was pale. "I…I…I don´t have it"

* * *

TBC

THANKS FOR READING, PLEASE REVIEW!

**~Karen K.**

Special thanks to BlueLion my betareader!

And another special thank you to my dear friend misshappynewyear who draw the amazing image for this fic, such a pity it´s so small but if you want to see the real artwork search for her gallery on deviantart


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter 5_

* * *

"In the end I can´t resist a hero… I´ll do whatever you want Roronoa" The tall pirate commented.

Zoro was surprised "Well… If you answer her questions, she´ll give you most of your things back" He looked at Nami from the corner of his eye who nodded smiling.

The shamanic pirate sighed. "Bring the pearl, I´ll show you how it works," he said bored.

"Yeah!" She pecked Zoro on the cheek and moved towards the tall pirate.

The girl walked smiling while she searched for the pearl inside her shirt pocket. Suddenly she stopped, she froze, her face was pale. "I…I…I don´t have it"

"WHAT?" Zoro yelled surprised. Could it be another of her tricks? He wondered but it seemed different; her face showed concern and worry.

The navigator searched in all her pockets for the precious stone without success. "I… I had it right here" She checked her shirt pocket one more time "But… I don´t have it anymore"

"Of course you don´t have it my dear" The Shamanic Pirate said it as it was the most obvious thing in the word.

"What did you do!" She confronted him.

"Me?" He asked his crew in an innocent tone "I did nothing, you don´t have it with you. I knew it since you placed a foot on this ship"

Nami´s worried look turned more anxious "But…but" she kept on searching for the pearl without looking at him but heard him "I repeat: Bring the pearl and I´ll show you how it works" When she shifted her eyes to where his voice was coming from she found nothing.

"WHAT THE HELL?" Zoro said surprised as everybody on the deck disappeared. He looked at Nami to ask her a dozen questions but noticing her concerned look and frantic search, he changed his mind. "Let's go, Nami. You must have dropped it on the way here"

She turned to him, nodded and in few seconds later they were on the land again.

Her eyes were fixed on the floor while she walked back their path.

"Maybe it fell when we…" He suggested blushing.

"I don´t think so" She answered coldly.

"How do you know? It´s a possibility, there were some movements." He followed after her, looking briefly at the floor to search, but not leaving his eye from her, so that he wouldn't lose her.

She stopped and looked at him "It was in the front pocket of my shirt, I would remember some movements there" she remarked ironically while bouncing her boobs on purpose.

He blushed deeply "You are right! We didn´t move those… I mean, I didn´t touch you there… I mean…" he scratched the back of his head in frustration "Do you remember the last place you saw it?"

"Of course!" She said angrily, "It was at… " Suddenly her voice faltered "…Nojiko´s house" and her eyes showed a mix of panic, anger and sadness.

He knew that look, he'd watched it in Arlong Park for the first time, when she had rescued him from drowning and he saw it again five years ago.

FLASHBACK

Zoro had stayed in Cocoyashi for a week since he found Nami. He tried to visit her every day, but she didn´t want to see him.  
He should be furious at her for lying to him, running away and cheating on him but she looked so miserable that the only thing he felt was compassion towards the navigator. He didn´t know what to do to cheer her up but he knew he was going to be there for her.  
He spent the days resting against a mikan tree she could see from her window, hoping that one day he would be allowed to meet her.  
Every now and then Nojiko came out and they chatted about nothing in particular, he asked how Nami was and she sighed and said that she was going through a big depression.  
When he was alone he wondered how she could cheat on him and who might be the father, but he tried to avoid those thoughts, he´d have time to be depressed when Nami was ok. Eventually he fell asleep.

The navigator, on the other hand, spent the days in her bed. Not because she needed to rest, just because she felt miserable. All she could think of was that she had ruined her life, she didn´t want to be a mother, she didn´t want to be in Cocoyashi and one more thing, she didn´t want to drag Zoro down to her crappy life and even though she had tried everything to prevent this, there he was sitting in the backyard waiting for her. Somehow, after all that thinking she managed to shift her feelings from depression to anger and with the power of fury, she stood up from the bed and confronted Zoro.

The swordsman had his eyes closed but he noticed something covering the light of the sun.

"ZORO" She called him coldly.

He opened his eye.

"GO. I DON´T WANT TO SEE YOU" She insisted.

He couldn´t get used to see her with that gigantic belly. Her body was as tiny and slim as always only a huge bump popped in the middle. He stood up and grinned. She looked terrible, her hair was messy, she had bags under her eyes and her skin was paler than ever, but she was there with him now.

"ZORO!" She yelled in frustration.

"I´ll go if you give me a reason, for your sake… not mine" he said calmly

"YOU ... "She grated her teeth. All she had been saying to him was that he shouldn´t stay with her because it wasn´t his child, he shouldn´t waste his life and things like that but those would be his reasons so, why would she want him to go? "I´m going to be a mother instead of a pirate"

He waited for her to say something else.

"I don´t want to be the reason for you to give up your life of adventure" she looked down.

He answered quickly as if he had known what she was about to say "You´ll never be that" his fingers searched for her hand. "Listen Nami, I know you are stubborn and you are not going to change your mind until I do whatever you want." Their fingers interlaced. "And though it usually works, this one's not going to go that way: I won´t leave you until I see you are ok!".

"Then you are going to live in Cocoyashi?" she mumbled crestfallen.

He shrugged "This tree is pretty comfortable" he ran his arms around her waist, or at least around what he could. He could feel her sobbing on his chest.  
He started to pull her down and resting his back on the tree he placed her on his chest between his legs and arms. It was midday; it would be good to let her be in contact of the warm rays of the sun.  
They spent an hour like that, in silence under the tree. Zoro played with her wavy hair and she rested against his chest.

"How's your head?" she asked softly.

"Perfect, it was just a scratch… only a few stitches" He felt her hand caressing his head searching for the injury.

"I always said you were hard headed" she commented.

He chuckled softly.

"Why you are not mad at me?" she asked.

He sighed "MMM… it´s like I have room for just one feeling and it´s worry, I´m worried about you"

"You left the Sunny" she added while she played with her fingers on his chest.

He thought about that. "Yeah, it was getting boring. I got why Sanji and Robin left too"

She giggled "I can tell when you are lying even without looking at you"

He snorted "I wish I had the same ability, I guess things would be different if I could read you like that"

She moved to look into his eyes "Come one, Don´t you know when I´m lying?" her eyes were watery.

He glanced at her. She'd asked it in a condescending tone and her eyes showed panic, anger and sadness. "I don´t know when you lie"

"Then why are you here?" she insisted.

"Because I know that I have to be here for you" His face was serious.

"Even If I lie?" she asked as if she was trying to deflect his last barrier of defense.

"Even if it hurts" he added.

"Until when?" her eyes started to fill with tears.

"I don´t know… I guess I´ll realize it when the moment comes" his hand moved to caress her cheek.

She dried her eyes with her hands and looked at him again, with that look: a mix of panic, anger and sadness. "Since the first night we spent together I have never been with another man" she said solemnly.

Zoro´s eyes grew big. He felt so many things. First he was glad and proud of her confession and then he knew what she was telling him. That baby was his, she lied, she was running away from him and she didn´t want to tell him anything, it hurt so badly.

She could see the anger and pain in his eyes, but he didn´t say a word and pulled her closer to him, placing her head on his chest and caressing her hair. They didn´t speak anymore. Eventually, the two of them fell asleep.

END OF FLASHBACK

"So? Where was the last place you saw the pearl?" He asked again since the red haired kept silent.

"At Nojiko´s house" She mumbled.

"Ok, Let´s go back there" He sighed.

"Yeah" She started walking slowly.

"I can´t believe you dropped it there" he commented.

"Me neither…" she walked in deep thought. There were two options of what could have happened; first one was that Zoro was right, she was ultra stupid and dropped it there. Second one, and most probable, that Kuina had never returned it to her. If the kid had it she´d have to talk to Zoro. But could a little girl steal from the world famous Dorobo Neko? Yeah, she had seen her grab some money from her father and she was under so much stress and emotion when she faced her, that probably her guard was down. She was a little surprised when she thought about the phrase "Like mother like daughter" and felt a glimpse of pride inside her.

"Zoro" She looked at him with those eyes: a mix of panic, anger and sadness. "The last time I saw the pearl was when I was with Kuina"

Zoro´s expression totally changed. His eyes lit like fire, his jaw clenched and he threw a punch to a tree in frustration. "WHAT?" he yelled as the trunk landed a few meters away from the navigator.

"I bumped into Kuina at Nojiko´s" she answered him seriously.

"What?" He insisted, not because he didn´t believe her just because he was trying to process the whole information.

"But don´t worry - I don´t think she recognized me. I just told her I was a friend of Nojiko's that needed to get something and I´d be on my way" she commented.

"And the pearl is missing…" He mumbled.

"Yes" she said

"Nami, she knows who you are!. She must have gotten the pearl so you wouldn´t go away" he said angrily. She had lied to him, again.

This time when he looked at her, he found something surprising, the red head was frozen and in panic.

"She… she knows who I am?" she stuttered.

"Of course" he threw his arms in the air in frustration.

She remembered her face and expressions during their encounter. "You told her I abandoned her" her eyes filled with tears.

"No" her expression touched him. "I told her the truth" he said calmly.

FLASHBACK

Nami´s delivery date was just around the corner and even though Zoro was allowed to be closer to her, her emotions hadn´t changed too much. One day he had convinced her to go to the beach, she never got out of her house but the green haired had been so insistent that she decided to join him. They were arriving at the shore and when the swordsman asked if she wanted to have a smoothie from one of the carts nearby, she accepted.  
Nami sat at one of the tables and he went to get the drinks. The navigator observed him talking to the girl from the cart and when she realized he was chuckling she started to think about how attractive he was, and how lucky she was that he wanted to be with her, then her thoughts drove her to how unattractive and fat she was and how unlucky he was for his willingness to be with her, if he wanted to be with her. She wondered if he wasn´t doing it out of guilt and pity.  
When Zoro arrived at the table she stood up and asked him to go back to the house. Surprised he accepted and they returned in silence, enjoying their drinks. As soon as they reached the house Nami ran to her room.  
Zoro and Nojiko sighed not knowing what to do with the depressed navigator.  
A few hours later Zoro knocked on her door.  
She let him in and hid behind the blankets.

"Nami" he sat next to her, "why are you so sad?"

She sighed "You know, I don't want this"

He instinctively moved to hug her "Then don´t do it"

"I can´t." She couldn´t get rid of the baby at that point of the pregnancy and she didn´t want to either, she was responsible for this happening and she was going to do it even if she felt miserable for the rest of her life.

"You can!" He looked into her eyes: "Go - I´ll take care of the baby, you be a pirate, draw the maps of the world, don´t regret anything!"

"Zoro" she couldn't believe what she was hearing

For the first time he saw a spark of life in her eyes. "Nami, I want you to be happy"

"I want you to be happy too… This is not what you want" she complained.

"I don´t know, It´s a little scary but I think that having a child could be fun" he scratched the back of his head embarrassed.

"Zoro!" She looked at him speechless.

"You wanted to do it alone and you thought it was fair then - so I can do it alone, too" he added to convince the navigator.

"You said you knew if I´m lying so…" He shuddered.

"Zoro!" she said and jumped to kiss him.

He was surprised at first but then he let himself sink into the passion of their lips lingering and their bodies meeting.

She couldn´t believe what he was offering but it was all she wanted to hear. She couldn´t confront what they were about to go through so he offered himself for the job. She wanted to thank him so much, she could give him all her treasure for that but she knew it meant nothing for him so she just kissed him.

But passion didn´t stop right there and the kissing turned into, nipping, biting and eventually touching, a few hours later, the swordsman and the navigator were in the same position that brought them there; Naked, sweating and breathing anxiously.

"Thank you Zoro" Nami said relived.

The next morning Nami woke up happy, when she turned around to wake up Zoro she found she was all alone in the bed.

A few minutes later the swordsman entered with a breakfast tray for the red head.

She smiled widely seeing him and waited for him to hand her the food. She extended her hand and he took it. She pulled him to sit next to her. After finishing breakfast, when Nami hugged the swordsman she felt him stiffen.

"What´s wrong?" She asked while kissing his neck. She was in such a good mood, she hadn´t been like that for months … 9 months exactly.

His hand caressed hers "I think…" He hesitated about telling her, she seemed happy now, why break the mood?.

"Do you regret about last night´s offer?" she said in a worried tone.

"No!" he looked into her eyes and squished her hand. "I´m keeping the baby, It´s just that…" He paused "I don´t think we should continue this if you are going to leave" His tone revealed his doubts.

Nami was a little taken aback "You… you are probably right" She said without letting his hand go. Her chin started to tremble announcing she was about to cry but she didn´t want to show him that she was sad, he was right. It was probably the best for the two of them, she was going to leave him. She should avoid any romantic interaction with the swordsman to prevent even more suffering at her departure after all this, it was the end of the two of them as a couple "I´m going to take a bath" she stood up.

He noticed her emotions and wondered if he had done the right thing or if he had blown the chances to be with her for a few last times. "Ok" his eyes followed her to the bathroom.

Inside the bathroom Nami started to think about being without Zoro, they had been together for so many years. Those last months she hadn´t thought about it but she had had other problems then - she was sure she was going to miss him. This wasn´t a fair end for the two of them but it was the right one.

She closed the door but he could hear her sobbing inside the bathroom. It hurt - more than when Mihawkeye had almost divided his body in two. He couldn´t go away, he needed to hear her crying, he needed to feel as sad as she was feeling.

Suddenly the door of the bathroom opened, and Nami appeared, still crying "Zo, Zo…" Tears poured from her eyes "I think my water just broke" She said between sobs.

Zoro´s eye shifted from her face to the wet floor. In a second he was carrying her bridal style "Let´s go to the hospital"

Several hours later, after the miracle of birth, an exhausted Nami slept in her hospital room, while the swordsman sat on a chair beside her.

Nojiko and a nurse carrying the new born entered the room.  
"Here she is! Do you want to meet her, daddy?" The nurse asked him cheerfully but in a soft voice to prevent waking up the red head.

Zoro nodded and after some help from the nurse, carried the baby in his arms. He couldn´t believe the miracle he and Nami had created, a person, a real human being and she was beautiful.  
He looked at Nami and hesitated in waking her up to show her the baby but she had been clear that she didn´t want to see her, so he stood there.  
Nojiko saw the opportunity to take a picture of them, the only picture of the three together.

"How are you going to name her, Daddy?" The blue haired asked.

Zoro looked at the baby´s cute face and didn´t doubt it "Kuina"

"I´ll leave you alone" The nurse said and left.

The green haired turned around to look at Nami "Kuina, this is your Mommy, she is a very brave pirate and she wants to see the whole word so she is going to be away, making her dream come true. You will probably miss her some days or you will feel abandoned, but you don´t have to feel like that, because she loves you anyway, even if she is not with you. One day you´ll have a dream, too and you will do everything to accomplish it and you´ll realize how amazing your mother is!"

Nojiko sobbed behind him, touched by his words.

Softly he kissed Nami´s lips and whispered "I love you, Nami. Just be happy, we will be happy if you are too!" he turned around grinning, his eyes full of tears. "I think we should go now"

The blue haired nodded - lacking words to say to the swordsman and watched the huge and fierce Roronoa Zoro, former pirate hunter, walk away carrying the cutest baby she had seen in her whole life.

END OF FLASHBACK

"You told her I abandoned her" her eyes filled with tears.

"No" her expression touched him. "I told her the true" he said calmly.

"I told her you were busy making the map of the world.. I taught her that the biggest adventure she can take is to live the life of her dreams, like her mother" He finished and looked at Nami, she was crying and biting her lower lip, like trying to stop the flow of emotions that emanated from her.

"So, she doesn´t ignore or hate you. She admires you profusely" he ended and gulped.

The navigator started crying uncontrollably. She couldn´t move or talk, she just cried and cried.

Zoro waited a few minutes for her to stop but after not seeing a change in her attitude he moved to hug her "It´s ok" he tried to calm her down.  
Yes he was tremendously mad at her for lying to him so many times he had lost count and even more for contacting Kuina without telling him but she had that enormous power on him that made him ran to her aide when she was in trouble, she had that gigantic control on him that only seeing her shed a tear would make him kneel at her service.

Several minutes later Zoro and Nami were ringing the bell at Nojiko´s house.

The blue haired opened the door and couldn´t hide her surprise after seeing them together while she was babysitting their daughter.

"Kuina?" Zoro asked

"She´s at Bellmere´s room" Nojiko, carrying her baby, answered. Nami had such a saddened expression that it worried her. Maybe those two had fought, again.

"Wait here" He said to Nami and entered the house.

The two sisters remained outside the house.

The door of the room was open, so Kuina didn´t notice the presence of her father staring at her while she observed the pearl in her hands.

"Kuina" He said coldly.

The girl quickly hid the gem and looked at him "DADDY!" She ran to hug him.

He petted her head "We need to talk"

The little girl try to hide between his legs, she knew she was in trouble when he said that sentence.

"Come on" He moved to sit on one of the little chairs in the room.

She sighed "I don´t want to talk… let´s go home, I have to do some homework and I need my crayons"

"Kuina…" He insisted

"Belle-chan broke all the crayons here… really, I can´t use them" She complained standing in front of him.  
Even with him sitting in that position the girl´s head barely surpassed Zoro´s knee. It was a cute scene, the huge swordsman sitting on such tiny chair.

He sighed "What did I tell you about stealing?"

"That it is wrong" She said pouting.

"Then why did you do it?" he tried to look serious even though Kuina´s cute expressions made it really hard to scold her.

"Did what?… I didn´t do anything" She looked away.

"Oh really… What was that little ball you had in your hand a few moments ago" he pointed at her tiny hands.

The small girl clenched her t-shirt in frustration "YOU STARTED THE LYING!" she pointed at him.

He felt as if her accusing finger had stabbed him "Kuina…"

"You knew she was here and you weren´t going to tell me! You were going to let her go!" Her chin started to tremble and her lips pouted even more.

He was surprised for a moment and thought about what to tell her. He didn´t want to teach her the wrong lesson. "I´m sorry I didn't tell you but sometimes adults do things to protect the children" He tried to explain.

"I just wanted to meet her… and tell her I´m her daughter, maybe I could show her my room and my drawings… just five minutes!" Her knees rubbed together and her fists clenched her shirt as tears started to form in her eyes "Please, I won't lie or steal anymore forever, please"

"Kuina" He lamented. She was breaking his heart but meeting Nami was going to be worst for her. She was used to be just with him, if she met the navigator he was sure she was going to love her at the next second and the separation would be unbearable for the little child. "No, you can´t"

"But…. WHYYYYY!" The last word transformed into a crying scream.

"Because… It wouldn´t be good for you" He said softly but the little girl crying was so loud that he couldn´t be sure if she had heard him.

They spent several minutes like that, Kuina screaming "Why?" while crying and kicking. He decided not to do anything until she ended up exhausted from the howling. If he was lucky, she would fall asleep, he would take her home and buy her ice cream for the whole week or whatever she wanted - and at the end she would forget about it. That´s what he prayed for, either way he had no idea of how to deal with it right now.

Then the little girl started sobbing and he felt that maybe she was tired but he would be surprised. "She... she…" she sobbed. "She doesn´t want to meet me, that´s why you lied and… she didn´t recognize me when I met her" she stuttered and tried to dry her face with the hem of her t-shirt.

Zoro was in panic now. She had figured out everything, that kid was way too smart, but he was sure she couldn´t handle the pain of what she was implying. "No! That´s not true!"

The little t-shirt covered her eyes, showing her cute, round tummy and belly button, while she tried to stop crying. "I… can tell when you are lying... even without looking at you" she said still sobbing.

That phrase was so familiar that he was speechless. He'd thought the only answer to comfort his child was to prevent her from knowing the truth, but if he couldn´t lie to her, the cause was lost. He would have to let her know that Nami didn´t want to see her and the only thing he had been trying to prevent their daughter from thinking in all those years would be the final resolution: Nami had abandoned her. He was so scared to think what that could provoke on a child knowing that her mother had left her, maybe she´d think she was not good enough or never trust anyone anymore, or who knew the psychological implications of how reasoning something like that could affect a child.  
He looked at her little cute face, her eyes glistening with tears, her mouth trembling with fear of his response.

"Indeed, Zoro, you are a lousy liar" A female voice interrupted the moment.

The two Roronoa turned their faces to look at Nami who was standing at the door of the room.

* * *

TBC

THANKS FOR READING, PLEASE REVIEW!

**~Karen K.**

Special thanks to BlueLion my betareader!

A/N: I hope you like this chapter. Sorry for the late update. I think the next chapter is going to be the last!


	7. Chapter 7

_Chapter 7_

* * *

"Indeed, Zoro, you are a lousy liar" A female voice interrupted the moment.

The two Roronoa turned their faces to look at Nami who was standing at the door of the room.

"Nami" Gasped the tiny girl surprised and quickly moved behind her father´s legs.

Zoro´s head which was locked staring at the red head turned down to look at the little child.

The navigator attempted a faint smile "So, you know who I am" She commented while sitting on another little chair in front of her.

Kuina nodded and kept staring at her. She looked a little scared for confessing she had stolen the pearl from the navigator who was just in front of her. "I… I´m sorry… for stealing from you" She said softly, looking down and pulling Zoro´s pants nervously.

"It´s ok, I know you are a good girl" This time she gave her a sweet smile.

When the little child dared to look at her and found the positive expression on Nami´s face, she relaxed a little.

"I´m sorry for making Zo, your daddy lie to you. You shouldn´t be mad at him " She gulped.

Kuina looked at Zoro, who was speechless and then at her again "O...Ok"

They spent a couple of seconds, uncomfortably for Zoro, staring at each other in silence.

The petite girl searched in her pocket for something and after a few seconds she extended her arm and showed her the pearl.

Nami sighed softly and grabbed it "Thank you"

"Why you didn´t want to meet me?" Kuina asked in a frightened tone.

The red head´s gaze turned quickly to Zoro for aid under the pressure of her question but returned quickly to the girl, realizing that she had to face her. "Because I didn´t want to disappoint you"

The green haired was surprised to hear that. He thought she was going to make up some lie to satisfy the little child but this was not going to stop Kuina´s questions. Why would she say something like that? Could Nami be telling the truth?

"Why? Why would you disappoint me?" The girl looked at her surprised.

Somehow the position of the navigator´s head changed in a way her bangs covered her eyes "I´m not as cool as you think I am"

The girl left her fathers leg and moved closer to her. "But you can predict the weather, right?"

"Yes but…" When Nami looked at her she was right in front of her.

"And you have your clima-tact and can create storms?" Her voice turned a little anxious.

Nami nodded "But that…"

"I bet the pearl is part of a big treasure" She interrupted her and smiled.

The optimistic and exited expression on the little girl made her smile in response.

Zoro witnessed the whole scene in silence, something inside told him that he shouldn´t interrupt them. The expression in Nami´s face was something totally new for him. He could tell that for Nami meeting her daughter was extremely moving.

Her tiny hands landed on her knees "You can´t disappoint me then. I always wanted to meet you" she looked deeply into her eyes.

After hearing that last sentence the navigator broke into tears "I´m sorry"

"Don´t cry!" She said worried and her hand jumped to hold hers.

"I´m so sorry for all of this" she continued crying "Sorry for make you wait so much to meet me" she squished her little hand.

"But you were making maps and hunting treasures, you are a pirate!" She said as it was reason enough for them to be apart "Daddy told me that and I missed you, yes but I want to be a pirate too so I understand". The girl ran to hug her around the waist "Please don´t be sad"

Nami could feel her heart exploding in a thousand pieces with those comments but the feeling of Kuina's tiny body clinging on to her was such a warm and empowering sensation that her arms unconsciously moved to hug the girl back.

Zoro stared at the red head crying on the little chair holding Kuina tightly against her.

"I´m sorry for stealing your pearl and for making you cry and I know you probably have to leave soon but could you stay with me for a little longer? I just want to show you my room" The little girl cried against her.

The navigator tried to calm herself and stopped crying. "Kuina," She said softly and the girl looked at her with watery eyes. Nami smiled again, it was as if the mere fact of looking at her little face made her happy. Suddenly everything made sense in her head; she had never been any surer about something in her life. She whispered something in Kuina's ear.

The swordsman couldn´t hear what she was saying but just seeing the two of them smiling and not crying made him feel it was ok.

Kuina turned around "I´m sorry daddy for yelling at you"

"It´s ok" he petted her head.

"OK" The red head stood up "I´m going to finish this" she said looking at the pearl.

"What?" Zoro yelled surprised.

She grinned.

"But?" He looked at Kuina who was staring at her with admiration. "Oh Crap"

"Don´t worry Zoro I´ll go alone" she was starting to move away when the swordsman grabbed her hand and walked in front of her "Shut up"

"But!" The navigator complained, but he just dragged her along.

"AND KUINA YOU ARE GROUNDED FOR STEALING" He yelled at the girl.

"BUT!" The little girl complained.

A short time after they were walking outside Nojiko´s house.

"Oh come on relax, everything went fine!" she said.

He sighed.

"You don´t have to worry about her. That kid is smart - maybe because you raised her well, probably because of my genius genes. She is going to be alright, I know it." She smirked.

Zoro started to think. Yes, everything seemed ok now but what about later?, Was Nami planning on staying? Did she think he had forgiven her and everything was going to be ok? Was he going to let her enter in their life as if nothing ever happened? Or worse, was she planning to leave again? Was that worse? What did she say to Kuina? Was the girl going to be ok if her mother left her after that moment they had shared a few minutes ago? "OH COME ON! YOU MET HER FOR LIKE 5 MINUTES AND YOU THINK YOU KNOW HER AND EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK" He stopped abruptly and yelled at her.

She kept on smiling at him. "I know you and I know as long as she has you everything is going to be alright" her hand moved to caress his face.

"Nami" He said softly.

"You are the best thing that ever happened to me, you make me do good things. You made me save you from drowning at Arlong Park to prove I wasn´t a mercenary and I let those guys put you in prison because I wasn´t ready to accept it yet. You made me give birth to Kuina and you let me leave because I wasn´t ready to accept it. You make me do good things, even when I don't realize it at the moment" She smiled widely at him "Thank you".

He nodded, not knowing what to say after that huge confession. He hadn´t done those things expecting a result, he just did what he felt right at the moment.

"So what´s so special about that pearl" He said changing the subject, he still had to get rid of those pirates and knowing Nami she got something in mind, better to help her finish with that first.

She giggled, as she hadn´t expected him to bring back that subject "It´s a magic pearl that can grant you a wish"

"Really? Let me guess, big treasure?" He commented as they resumed walking.

"HUGE treasure" She said smiling.

FLASHBACK 2 YEARS AGO

Nami had been travelling around the world for 3 years, she drew her maps, shopped, fought a few pirates and even as she thought that everything was like she loved it to be, it felt different.  
At first it was thrilling and fun but she quickly got used to it. It wasn't the same without the crew, it wasn't the same now that she was older, it wasn't the same now when she had let go so many things. She hadn´t regretted her decisions, but recently she'd started to doubt if they had been the correct ones.  
One day when she was enjoying a glass of wine in an elite restaurant of some fancy island she bumped into the Shamanic Pirates. At first they seemed as the staff of a circus or some kind of road show, entertaining the people of all of the tables. They performed different magic tricks to their audiences, after marveling them, they earned claps and tips.  
She considered it a fun show until she realized that the magician that was in front of her had managed to take her earrings. When she looked at the other tables she realized that they were just putting on a show to steal from the clients of the restaurant. She thought for a second to stop them and made the navy arrest them just in the place but then she thought that if they had been robbing everybody they should have lots of treasure in their ship and you know what they say: It´s no crime to steal from a thief.  
After they were gone, she paid her check and followed them to their ship. She would have accomplished her misión of stealing from the thieves if it wasn´t for the charismatic captain that got in the way. He was not only charming but he was a great magician so he managed to marvel Nami with his tricks. He astonished her in a way she asked him if she could join his crew to learn a few tricks. The captain happened to be fond of the navigator as well so he accepted her offer.

By the third month in the crew she found a book with magic spells of great magnitude. She was laughing at the idiotic conjurements that were inside it like, "potion for eternal beauty", "Ointment to get taller", "Necklace for immortality", "Pearl for a wish" when the captain of the ship interrupted her and told her that the contents of that book were real. She didn´t believe him so he asked her why she thought he was so tall. She was used to his sense of humor by now so both laughed until the tall captain got serious and showed her his necklace. It was a string that tied a pearl in the middle; he told her he had the pearl-for-a-wish. He only was waiting for a good wish to appear. She continued laughing without believing him.  
That night she couldn´t sleep so easily. She dreamt about Bellemere, Genzo, Nojiko, Luffy, the crew, the weird thing was that Zoro never appeared on it. She woke up feeling extremely melancholic. When the captain asked her what was going on, she told him about her dream and he said something that made Nami think in a different way "Oh you had a dream about your family". Family. Exactly, that was what they were for her; her family. Well, that made some kind of sense, they were her family and she missed them. Even though, She wondered why the green haired wasn´t in that dream.  
In the 3 months she had been living together with the Shamanic pirates she had developed a good friendship with them, especially with the captain. He had something that made her open up to him. In this phase of her life she regularly felt alone and finding this new friend was just what she needed. When she told him that she found it weird that Zoro hadn´t been part of her dream he said that maybe deep down she didn´t consider him family. That was when she decided to tell him her story with Zoro. She was surprised to hear him say "So, I was right you two are not family anymore" after telling him her unlucky love story. He always made her think with his words, so now that he put it that way she realized that he was right, she had had the opportunity to form a family with Zoro and she'd rejected it , so it was true that they weren´t family anymore.  
That night she had a similar dream. It was great - she was enjoying Christmas dinner with everybody, Bellmere was serving the dinner, Luffy and Ussop danced with Chopper next to the Christmas tree, Sanji and Nojiko helped her mother. The rest of the crew was at the table. She woke up smiling, but it soon went away as she realized it was a dream, to be quickly followed by a question: how did Zoro spend his last Christmas?. Since then she had the same kind of dreams every night and woke up wondering about him every morning. The rest of the day she spent reviewing her life and pondering her decisions.

It was about a year that Nami had been living with the Shamanic Pirates when Christmas arrived. It was a beautiful night and they were having a party on the deck. The captain moved next to her and remarked that in a few weeks, almost by the time of year change, it would be a year since she joined them. She agreed with him there. He started to talk about how many things had happened in the last year and yet how everything was somehow the same. Then he asked her what was she'd done on the 24th of the previous year and she didn´t remember, so she answered that she'd probably been at some Christmas laughed and told her that last year on the 24th he had shaved off his afro and that he deeply regretted it. They stood there looking at the stars for a several minutes.

"Look a shooting star make a wish" he pointed at the star

"I wish you grow an afro now!" She said and they laughed.

"I wish I hadn´t cut my hair" he sighed.

"Maybe you should use the pearl" She pointed at his neck.

"Maybe I could…I got the pearl, I should wait for my hair to grow a curl so I could use it as a transition object "

When she asked him about it, he said that in order to focus on your wish while asking it, wizards stare at or touch an object that connects to the wish. For him that would be a curl, but he´d have to wait for his hair to grow longer for that. The two of them laughed at the antics of the whole situation. When the captain left her, she continued to stare at the sky, but remembered what she'd been doing on a 24th of December 4 years ago and wondered what they would be doing now.

That night she had another dream. It was a similar situation as her previously ones, but instead of Bellemere, Luffy, Genzo, the crew and Nojiko, it was her serving the dinner to Zoro who held a baby. The three of them looked extremely happy, especially her. When she opened her eyes she thought she couldn´t breath, her heart beat at full speed and she spent a couple of minutes until she could calm down. Suddenly something that she had always sensed lightly, felt incredibly profound: Guilt. She had been doubting her decisions for the last year and now everything she had done in her past felt wrong. The familiar feeling of depression returned and she spent the rest of the week locked in her room. Her new friends inquired what was wrong with her, but she made up some excuses - she was too ashamed of her feelings to confess them out loud.

One morning or night, she didn´t know when she woke up at that moment, she was feeling so miserable that she was tempted to end it all there, when she gasped "If only I had made another decision" and her eyes opened widely.

When the shamanic pirates woke up the next day, they were surprised to find several things missing: a boat, the captains's special necklace - and Nami.

END OF FLASHBACK

Zoro and Nami arrived at the port. The two of them ran to the wooden decks where the Pirate ship had been docked a few hours ago. It was obvious from the shore that the ship wasn´t there, but even so, they ran all the way.

"Where the hell are they?" Zoro said looking at the empty dock. It was a port only for pirates so it was usually clear but the ship had been there a few hours ago.

Nami stared at the ocean for a few seconds. "Let´s ask the port guardian," she turned around and walked to a little cabin that was at the entrance of the port.  
Zoro followed her closely, she didn´t seem frustrated.

The red head knocked on the door and a sleeping fat sailor answered her. "Yeah?" He yawned.

"Hello, We are looking for the pirate ship that was docked here a few hours ago" She asked politely.

The guy opened the window of the cabin and rubbing his eyes answered her. "Pirate ship here? A pirate ship hasn´t docked on this port in months"

"We were on it at noon!" Zoro yelled from behind her.

"And I've been working on this port for 20 years" He commented ironically.

"Oh come on! A really tall guy, in a suite with feathers! I have to give him something!" She insisted.

"How much money did they give you? She´ll pay you double!" Zoro said from behind.

Nami glared at him for proposing she´d pay anything. "Zoro!"

"Wait, Are you Roronoa Zoro?" He asked looking at him "So you are Nami, right?"

Both of them nodded and looked at him. The guy turned around and started searching for something "You took your time girl"

"What?" she asked. Zoro looked at her and she shuddered.

"There it is" The guy took an envelope from one of the drawers "Your tall friend left it here for you, he said you were going to come and ask for it but I never thought it would take you a year" he handed her something that looked like a letter.

Nami looked really surprised and didn´t know what was going on. She took it, it was a sealed envelope addressed to her. The green haired stared at her and she looked back at him.

"Open it" He encouraged her.

She moved away from the cabin and Zoro to open it in private.

The swordsman rolled his eyes, tired of her secrecy.

The red head opened it slowly. Inside it was some kind of paper, a picture she could see as her hand took it out. Nothing else was inside it, just that picture. When she saw it, she quickly recognized it, it was the picture she stole from Nojiko the day before, the picture that was supposed to be her transitional object, the picture that was going to make her wish come true. The wish of letting the story rewind and teleport her to that exact moment of her life to make a new decision, the decision to stay with Zoro and Kuina. But how was it there? She had it with her since yesterday, when she first tried to ask for her wish five times without success inside Nojiko´s bathroom, later on when she had forced Zoro to go threaten the pirates, so they would tell her how this pearl really worked - and finally she could swear she had taken a glimpse at the picture on the way here. How on earth could it be inside that wretched, dusty envelope?  
She quickly moved her hand inside her pocket to search for both the pearl and the picture. She closed her eyes and her hand found only the pearl. She sighed softly and grinned, thinking of how full of tricks those Shamanic pirates were. She looked at the picture again and noticed that it had something written on the other side. "Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending!" The red haired started to laugh.

Zoro moved closer "What's wrong?"

She put the picture back into her pocket and grabbed his hand. "So, Zoro," she said as she walked with him to the end of the pier.

The green haired followed her "What happened to those pirates? What was inside that envelope?"

"You shouldn´t worry about them, we're fine" She smiled at him and stopped at the edge of the pier.

Somehow her fresh smile calmed him and he didn´t ask her anything else. He knew that at some point she would decide to explain everything to him. That was what he thought until he watched the red head extend her arm backwards and throw the pearl deep inside the ocean. "WHAAAAAT?" The little object shone in the middle of the air and sunk in the blue water of the ocean.

She smiled brightly at him. She felt lighter, as if throwing that pearl was like getting rid of the heavy weight she had on her back. "What are we eating tonight?"

"WHAT?" He stopped walking.

"I know you haven´t forgiven me yet but we could make a truce until tomorrow" she continued walking and dragging him with her.

He looked angry, like I´m-about-to-put-on-my-bandana-Zoro: "What the hell just happened? Aren't you going to tell me anything?" he followed her.

"I love you" She smiled again.

He jaw dropped "What the heck!". This went too far, this girl, this woman had trespassed the limit of his patience.

"Ok, look, I know you. Now it´s the part when you get mad at me, so I was thinking that after tonight´s dinner, I could stay at Nojiko´s and take Kuina to school in the mornings and back, what do you think?" she commented lightly - ending every phrase with a shiny smile addressed to the swordsman.

"Hell no!" What was going on, she didn´t have the sole say in this. She was not going to get into Kuina´s life until he said so and in order to do that he had to be sure about her intentions, her plans for the future, at least what the hell had just happened!, he thought, but the navigator kept harassing him with her comments.

"I´m back so we´ll have to figure it out. You know. I mean, you. I know exactly what I want" She smirked "That vein on your forehead looks soo cute" she caressed him.

"Stop that! You don´t want to tell me anything - FINE - but we are not doing everything like you want! Now we´ll do things my way!" he said firmly.

"Sure!" She nodded obediently. "So we are not having dinner together tonight?" She pouted.

"No!" He said instantly "We are going to do things my way and I´m not letting you see Kuina until I´m sure of all your intentions!" he pointed at her.

"Ok, but you should know I told her that we were going to eat tonight - the three of us together" she said softly.

"That´s what you whispered to her?" he assumed, thinking out loud and glaring at her: "Ok, we´ll do that, then we´ll talk about if you can see her again" he said frowning.

"Ok." She nodded respectfully but after a few seconds her mouth opened again "I could talk to Nojiko to baby sit Kuina for the weekend so we can have our date" she added.

"WHAT! Date? Are you insane! I´m awfully mad at you. I can barely take your presence - just because of Kuina" he hated when she acted so carefree about sensitive issues - like what just had happened.

"Oh right! I forgot" she said, squishing his hand.

The two of them continued walking hand in hand. The red head commented things and the swordsman yelled in disagreement, either way none of them let go.  
Like the captain of the Shamanic Pirates had written on the picture, she couldn't go back and start over, but the power to change the way things were going to end up was always with her. She couldn´t say it was a fresh start so she would accept his conditions and punishments until he realized the obviousness of how madly in love they were and accepted that they were meant to be together. She was sure that the days of feeling miserable were over as long as she was with him, as long as she was with them.

"FIVE YEARS WAS NOTHING? You don´t even know what you are saying!" He yelled.

"That´s nothing compared to what´s coming and you wouldn´t be able to do without me" She insisted.

He fumed.

"Shopping for a bra" She pointed out.

"WHAT? "

"And how about menstruation? I´d love to hear you talk about that" She continued.

"Are you insane - that´s years from now!"

"Boyfriend, sex…"

"Nami, just shut up" He said in a defeated tone.

"Don´t worry, I´m here" She kissed his cheek.

THE END

Music for the closing credit roll: YouTube  watch?v=rOKd8dsqqQU

* * *

THANKS FOR READING, PLEASE REVIEW!

**~Karen K.**

Special thanks to BlueLion my betareader! I couldn´t have done it without him.

A/N: I hope you like the story. Thanks for your wonderful reviews.


End file.
